The FBI has confirmed that an American millionaire, who is wanted by the US authorities on charges of arranging the contract killing of his wife, has obtained an Irish passport.
It is not known how long James Vincent Sullivan, 59, has the passport or how he got it.
Mark Giuliano, agent in charge of the FBI's fugitive squad, said the agency was working with Interpol and the gardai, but had yet to estaablish whether Sullivan fled here.
Sullivan was indicted on charges of hiring a hitman to kill his estranged wife, Lita, who was shot by a man delivering flowers to her home in Atlanta, Georgia.
Prosecutors believe he was trying to avoid a messy and expensive divorce.