- Peter Butt is the author of Merchants of Menace: The True Story of the Nugen Hand Bank Scandal
- American war hero Michael Hand and Australian lawyer Frank Nugan established Nugan Hand Bank in 1973
- In 1980, Frank Nugan was found dead under mysterious circumstances
- Michael Hand disappeared without a trace
- A dozen investigations (including one by FBI) failed to get to the bottom of the case
- Peter Butt began his 4-year investigation of the Nugen Hand saga in 2011
- The bank was involved in drug trafficking, running guns, money laundering for drug syndicates and the CIA
- Frank Nugen’s body was found in his car, at 4 am in the morning
- Apparently he committed suicide using his rifle
- There were no fingerprints found on the rifle
- Visiting card of CIA Director William Colby was found
- Michael Hand ordered the destruction of bank’s records
- Nugen and Hand’s background
- Bernie Houghton
- Doug Sapper, Hand’s friend from special ops
- Hong Kong branch of the Nugen Hand bank
- Michael Hand resigned from the bank in 1975 and went to South Africa
- Hand was a former CIA paramilitary officer
- All operations in Laos were controlled by the CIA
- Gerald Ford fired CIA Director William Colby in January 1976
- Three years later, Colby became legal advisor to the Nugan Hand bank
- In March 1976, Hand returned to the bank
- Niel Evans ran the Chiang Mai branch of the Nugen Hand Bank
- Most of the money that went to the bank in Chiang Mai was drug money
- The Chiang Mai branch was next to the DEA office
- According to Evans, both the CIA and the DEA knew what the bank was doing
- The deal between the Nugen Hand bank and the CIA
- The start of the decline of the bank
- The Narcotics Bureau investigation of the bank
- Frank Nugen used the depositors’ money to decorate his home and buy cars for the bank’s staff
- In May 1978, Frank and his brother Ken Nugen were arrested
- In the latter half of 1978, General Erle Cocke ran Nugan Hand Bank’s Washington office
- Cocke had decades of experience moving money for CIA, FBI and other US government agencies
- The Iranian revolution of 1979 and the Nugan Hand bank
- General Edwin F. Black, President of Nugan Hand’s Hawaii branch
- CIA airline Air America
- “Nugan Hand had enough generals, admirals and spooks to run a small war” – Jonathan Kwitny
- FREE Borrowable Ebook: The Crimes of Patriots by Jonathan Kwitny
- In early Jan 1980, Frank bought a rifle and an axe
- Bernie Houghton ran the bank’s middle east branches
- The death/murder of Frand Nugen and the disappearance of Michael Hand
- James Spencer Oswald served with Ted Shackley (CIA) in Laos
- Spencer made a new passport for Michael Hand
- Spencer spent 3 weeks in Australia helping Hand in creating a new identity
- The CIA knew where Michael Hand was after he “disappeared”
- The Royal Commission of Inquiry found no connection to gun running or to the CIA !!
- How Peter Butt tracked down Michael Hand in 2015
- News article: 60 Minutes track down fugitive Michael Hand living in the US
- Video: Tracking down the most wanted fugitive behind Nugan Hand bank collapse
Podcast: Play in new window | Download