X-Nico

4 unusual facts about Nugan Hand Bank


Nugan Hand Bank

In April 1983 a Perth businessman, Murray Quartermaine, testified to the Stewart Royal Commission on drugs that Hand was living in Pretoria, South Africa under the name of "Hahn".

The bank was co-founded in 1973 by Australian lawyer Francis John Nugan and US ex-Green Beret Michael Jon Hand, and had connections to a range of US military and intelligence figures, including William Colby, who was CIA director from 1973 to 1976.

It is said that a hand-written list was found on his body which detailed substantial loans Nugan Hand had extended to various notables, such as William Colby and Bob Wilson.

The Nugan Hand Chiang Mai branch participated in the covert sale of an electronic spy ship to Iran and weapons shipments to Angola.


Abe Saffron

Furthermore, in the second edition of The Politics of Heroin by Alfred W. McCoy, in a chapter summarising the Nugan Hand Bank it is mentioned that Askin and Saffron regularly had dinner together at the Bourbon and Beefsteak Bar and Restaurant, owned by American expatriate Maurice Bernard Houghton.

Alfred W. McCoy

He also uncovered money laundering activities by banks controlled by the CIA, first the Castle Bank which was then replaced by the Nugan Hand Bank, which had as legal counsel William Colby, retired head of the CIA.

Michael Jon Hand

In 1973 he co-founded the Nugan Hand Bank with Australian lawyer Francis John Nugan, concentrating on the international side of the bank.


see also

Ocean Shores, New South Wales

Lots were sold by Michael Jon Hand, Frank Nugan and Bernie Houghton of what would later become the notorious Nugan Hand bank.