NUGEN HAND BANK

[Dealey Joe]

Nugan Hand Ltd. was founded in Sydney in 1973 by Australian lawyer Francis John "Frank" Nugan (who was reputedly associated with the Mafia in Griffith, New South Wales) and former U.S. Green Beret Michael Jon "Mike" Hand who had experience in the Vietnam War (after which he began training Hmong guerillas in Northern Laos under CIA aegis, an experience alleged to account for his ties to the "Golden Triangle" heroin trade). It has been alleged that the two generally split the business: Nugan took care of tax fraud and money-laundering, while Hand managed the drug money and the international branches.The Nugan Hand Bank attracted investors with promises of up to 16% interest rates on their deposits and assurances of anonymity, tax-free accounts, specialist investment assistance, along with more surreptitious services such as money laundering (charging a mere 22% fee).[citation needed] Nugan Hand rapidly gained business and expanded its offices from a single Sydney office to a global network that included branches (registered in the Cayman Islands) in Chiang Mai, Manila, Hawaii, Cape Town, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Cayman Islands and Washington D.C..The Nugan Hand Bank gained respectability by the recruitment of a number of retired senior U.S. military and intelligence personnel, such as former Rear Admiral Earl "Buddy" Yates as bank president and ex-CIA head William Colby as legal counsel.Australian trucking magnate Peter Abeles was also connected with the bank.[1][edit]Scandal and collapseConcerns over the bank's questionable accounting processes began to circulate by the late 1970s as investors attending annual general meetings were prevented from asking questions by the bank. These concerns turned into panic for bank investors in the early hours of 27 January 1980 when Nugan (who was facing charges of stock fraud) was found shot dead by a .30-calibre rifle in his Mercedes-Benz outside Lithgow, New South Wales. It is said that a hand-written list was found on his body with a list of substantial loans Nugan Hand had extended to various notables, such as William Colby and Bob Wilson. The following police investigation returned a verdict of suicide. Suspicions of the bank's activities grew in subsequent days as details emerged of the contents of Nugan's car (including the business card of William Colby) and news that Nugan's house and office had been ransacked by Hand and Yates and important company files destroyed or stolen.The official inquest into Nugan's death in June 1980 made front-page news amid testimony from Hand that Nugan Hand was insolvent, owing at least A$50 million (and as much as hundreds of millions), including $20,000 rent on their Sydney headquarters.Hand shredded many of Nugan Hand's remaining records from both the office and the home of Nugan. He then fled Australia under a false identity, that of a Sydney butcher named Alan Glenn Winter, on a flight to Fiji in late June 1981. Hand wore a false beard and mustache to look like Winter and obtained a passport after getting Winter's birth certificate and having two photos taken. After a week in Fiji he made his way to Vancouver, British Columbia, and then on to New York City.[2]Hand has not been seen since. It is possible that, as a CIA operative, after he re-entered the United States and was given a new identity.In April 1983 a Perth businessman, Murray Quartermaine, testified to the Stewart Royal Commision on drugs that Hand was living in Pretoria, South Africa under the name of Hahn. Quartermaine's former business partner Christo Moll had been linked to the bank, and Quartermaine had won a AU$400,000 judgment against Moll. Quartermaine also told The Age that he had evidence that questioned that Nugan's death was a suicide.[3]A subsequent royal commission inquiring into the activities of the Nugan Hand Group revealed money-laundering, arms shipments, drug dealing, theft (including US$5 million from US military personnel in Saudi Arabia) and large-scale tax avoidance by Nugan Hand throughout its brief but eventful existence. One witness, a former Nugan Hand director, stated that Hand threatened bank executives: "If we didn't do what we were told, and things weren't handled properly, our wives would be cut into pieces and put in boxes and sent back to us".[4][5]An Australian investigation, the 'Joint Task Force on Drug Trafficking', compiled a report on the Nugan Hand bank in 1983. It determined that, above and beyond the revelations of the Royal Commission, Nugan Hand had acted as a CIA front to finance a war in Laos by laundering drug money. The Nugan Hand Chiang Mai branch participated in the covert sale of an electronic spy ship to Iran and weapons shipments to Angola.[6]The investigation linked former Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos to the bank. Melbourne and Manila businessman Ludwig Petre Rocka had an account at the bank, as did his wife Elizabeth E. Marcos, sister of Ferdinand. Rocka had helped set up the Manila branch of Nugan Hand and had his Manila office (International Development & Planning Corporation) in the same office as the bank. Author Jonathan Kwitny states that the evidence implies that Ferdinand Marcos was removing money from the Philippines, some of which was in gold, through Nugan Hand, and that a portion of this money, a "commission", was then used to fund CIA activity, like that in Laos.[7][8][9]Authors Alfred W. McCoy (in The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade), as well as Sterling and Peggy Seagrave (in their book Gold Warriors: America's Secret Recovery of Yamashita's Gold) state that Hugan Hand was totally CIA controlled (by Paul Helliwell), and came into formation after Castle Bank & Trust came under scrutiny and was just the predecessor of Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), after Hugan Hand imploded. They further assert that the bank was just small stepping stone for the CIA in laundering capital that started during World War II and continues on.[10][11]It has long been a subject of speculation that Nugan Hand had some sort of part to play in Australian prime minister Gough Whitlam's dismissal.[12]Continued speculation that Nugan had faked his own death, including a report from a businessman who said he saw and talked with Nugan while on a trip to the U.S., and was in hiding led authorities to exhume Nugan's body in February 1981. Dental records and fingerprints where used to confirm that the body was Nugan's.[13]No one connected with Nugan Hand has ever been convicted of a crime. Admiral Yates and his fellow senior officers who were involved with Nugan Hand have not responded to Australian requests to testify about the bank.

[Ed Teach]

In researching historical drug smuggling routes and other related topics I came across the name of Paul Helliwell. He has a wiki entry and is interesting because of his OSS and CIA background. He was one of the original CIA boys. I got started on this line of research while looking into khat and captagon. I find it interesting that khat can be processed into ephedrine which in turn can be turned into speed which in turn can be turned into captagon. With Karzai's brother in Afghanistan being on the CIA payroll throughout the 2000s during our so called war on terrorism when one begins to connect all of these dots it is rather astonishing that the CIA has got away with this charade so very long. I am beginning to think Kennedy's aversion to involvement in Vietnam had a big part to do with CIA drug running...same thing goes for Cuba. The big three in my eyes are oil, guns, and drugs. Everyday that passes it looks more an more like the Bush dynasty was neck deep in all of it. They benefited the most it would seem. Everything happening today in history is driving from that Friday in Nov 1963.

[Ed Teach]

A little more food for thought...Along with Pepsi and Coke there is Marlboro.Do these guys own everything???http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/j ... -terrorism

[Ed Teach]

A dagger in the heart of the operations and connecting all of the "families". Read this where our friend Paul Helliwell shows up...he is a very important figure in understanding the people behind the JFK assassination. The CIA and the mob were joined at the hip through drug trafficking. As Bruce says...my opinion.http://www.darkpolitricks.com/cia-invol ... ng-part-1/