NASSAU, Bahamas - Immigration Minister Shane Gibson resigned Sunday night in a flap over his relationship with Anna Nicole Smith.
Photos recently appeared in a Bahamas newspaper showing Gibson in bed with the former Playboy Playmate and embracing her. Both were fully clothed, but the pictures stoked a controversy because Gibson had fast-tracked Smith's application for permanent residency on the island chain.
"I want to apologize to all persons who may in any way have been offended by anything that I have said, done, or perceived to have said or done,'' Gibson said on state television.
Smith, who died on Feb. 8 in Hollywood, Fla., lived in the Bahamas in a house whose ownership was claimed by a developer from South Carolina. Smith had claimed the mansion was hers when she applied for residency in the Bahamas last year.
Prime Minister Perry Christie said he had accepted Gibbon's resignation.
"However sad Shane's decision to resign may be, I also believe, as does he, that it is the correct course of action for him to take in all of the circumstances,'' the prime minister said on TV.
Although he was stepping down, Gibson denied any wrongdoing in Smith's residency case. He said he was the victim of "vicious and wicked lies.''
"I unconditionally deny that I ever abused my ministerial office by granting Anna Nicole Smith any permit of which she was undeserving or for which she was not qualified under the laws of the Bahamas,'' he said.
