Do you remember the Nugan Hand Bank?

The Nugan Hand Bank
Michael Hand
Frank Nugan
Admiral Earl P. Yates
USA President George Bush
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
Brigadier General Erle Cocke, former head of Nugan Hand’s Washington branch
 The Nugan Hans Bank's co-founder, former U.S Green Beret Michael Jon "Mike" Hand
The Merchants of Venice
The Secret Team - The Australian Drug Connection
The Crimes of Patriots- A True Tale of Dope Dirty Laundering and the CIA

 by Jonathan Kwitny
In December 2011, Michael Hand’s military colleague and Nugan Hand ‘fixer’, Douglas Sapper, confirmed that Nugan Hand Bank had been a conduit for CIA money

Stash Prada

Published on May 27, 2016

Nugan Hand Bank was an Australian merchant bank that collapsed in 1980 after the suicide of one of its founders, Australian lawyer Francis John "Frank" Nugan, resulting in a major scandal. News stories suggested that the bank had been involved in illegal activities, including drug smuggling, arranging weapons deals, and providing a front for the United States Central Intelligence Agency. Speculation grew when it became known that the bank had employed a number of retired United States military and intelligence officers, including former CIA director William Colby.
Investors' losses and the speculation surrounding the bank's activities led to three major government investigations over the next five years. The bank's co-founder, former U.S Green Beret Michael Jon "Mike" Hand, and two other bank employees were indicted for conspiring to "pervert the course of justice" by destroying or removing bank records. Hand fled abroad in June 1980. In 1985 a royal commission of inquiry found that while the bank had committed numerous violations of banking laws, the allegations of drug-smuggling, arms dealing, and involvement in CIA activities were not substantiated.[1][2] In 2000, Brigadier General Erle Cocke, former head of Nugan Hand’s Washington branch, gave a court deposition admitting that he carried out long-term, clandestine banking activities for numerous agencies including the CIA and FBI.[3] In December 2011, Michael Hand’s military colleague and Nugan Hand ‘fixer’, Douglas Sapper, confirmed that Nugan Hand Bank had been a conduit for CIA money
In June 1973, Frank Nugan and Mike Hand met up with prominent Australian businessman and racehorse owner John Needham to discuss setting up a company that could act as a merchant bank. On 6 July 1973, the trio incorporated Nugan Hand Needham and took expensive offices at 55 Macquarie Street, in the heart of the Sydney CBD. The first year of operation was so disorganized that Needham asked to be released from the partnership. Following Needham's departure, the firm was renamed Nugan Hand Ltd.[5]
According to writer Alfred W. McCoy, the bank was formed with a fraudulent claim of $1m in share capital: "With only $80 in the company's bank account and just $5 in paid-up capital, Frank Nugan wrote his own company a personal check for $980,000 to purchase 490,000 shares of its stock. He then covered his massive overdraft by writing himself a company check for the same amount."[6] Kings Cross restaurateur Bernie Houghton was also involved in the bank from the beginning.[7]
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.

Category People & Blogs

Murkier Waters than bottom of the harbour- Age from Melbourne, Victoria on May 12, 1989 

May 12, 1989

 A Publisher Extra Newspaper

The Age from Melbourne, Victoria · Page 11

Publication: The Age i

Location: Melbourne, Victoria

Issue Date: Friday, May 12, 1989

Page: Page 11

https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/120597265/

On the surface they will be seen as tax cheats, says DAVID WILSON, but the activities of Francis Ward and Keith Knight raise many more questions than tax avoidance.

In 1977, Ward and Dunn left the bank and a year later set up in the taxation business with Knight. It should be stressed that in no way was Dunn associated with the illegal activities of Ward and Knight. There appears to have been an arrangement, although not documented, whereby the Ward and Knight group took over some of the Nugan Hand clients, particularly in the tax-advice area. In late 1978, a highly unlikely character entered the scene. Brian Raymond Durston had not long been out of jail, after being convicted on a false imprisonment count. Durston, along with a then Melbourne justice of the peace and real estate agent, Guy Keith Campbell, were directors of a $2 company called Camper Timber and Trading. In October 1978 an agreement was reached between Camper Timber and Ward and Knight that the company was to "exclusively service" Ward and Knight in "washing" of income or other services. In effect. Camper Timber became Ward and Knight's "laundering agent". The agreement estimated that the amount of income to go through the businesses was expected to be not less than $150 million. As part of the agreement it was decided that companies associated  with and passing through Ward and Knight which were stripped of their assets would end up with Camper Timber. Durston would then arrange for another company to be issued for arms dealing … investigators, after raiding the Ward-Knight-Dunn Offices investigators found a folder on an Israeli aircraft deal. The folder made reference to a company, Hainan Ltd., which was registered in Hong Kong and of which Ward and Knight were both directors. ON 13 February 1980, Knight- wrote to a colleague in Hong Kong. In the letter, he said: "The negotiations between our Melbourne client and the Israeli arms manufacturer were discontinued and the $750,000 profit did not-eventuate. We were quite incorrectly instructed in this matter, and have voiced our protest quite strongly through our Melbourne office." : . Investigators also found documentation on a Ward-Knight com-, pany which revealed a project to develop gun racks for sale to Indonesia. Another interesting sidelight to Ward and Knight is that they dabbled in industrial and residential projects. On each investment. one company was bought for $440,000, but within two years it was in liquidation and its shares were worthless. A venture into the travel agency industry also flopped. While the tax-avoidance matters were thoroughly and successfully investigated, the other more murky matters remain much of a mystery. Ward: first job at the Bathurst post office. a vacant block, while others were sent to two brothers, known as Johnson, in Brisbane. The Johnsons, according to evidence, did not exist. The worlds of Ward and Knight crashed in May 1983 when they were each declared bankrupt. They have since been discharged. But behind the tax schemes there emerges a shadowy world of much greater concern. Whether or not it was of their own choosing. Ward and Knight allowed well-known criminals to hold ac- Knight: started out in a wholesale vegetable business. counts with them. For example, a long-time convicted drug-runner, said by police to have been responsible for the importation of 12 kilograms of heroin, was found to have bank books in six different aliases with the Ward and Knight group. The assumption at first appears that the drug-runner was using the group for income tax preparation advice. But the person had not filled in a tax form for the better part of a decade and Ward and Knight did not act as tax agents, in Opportunity for a rising star. N the surface, Francis Dennis Ward and Reginald Keith Knight will be seen as tax cheats. Ward and Knight were, like Queenslander Brian James Maher and Sydney-sider John Walker Wynyard, leading lights in the bottom-of-the-harbor tax-avoidance industry: an industry which on some estimates turned over thousands of millions of dollars. But unlike Maher and Wynyard, more and more questions are being asked, and remain unanswered, about Ward and Knight. In a nutshell. Was the Ward-Knight bottom-of-the-harbor business just a sideline to what could have been a vast, flourishing criminal enterprise? Why would Ward and Knight, running a domestic tax business in Sydney and Melbourne, need to establish companies scattered throughout Asia? Why would Knight need to travel abroad almost 30 times, many of them for a few days at a time to Singapore and the Philippines, in the space of a few years? Why would a United States businessman, in an undated telex, outline to Ward and Knight a proposal to supply the Indonesian Government with 250 Corvette destroyers? Why would two supposedly smart money men buy a financially crippled fishing lodge on the tip of North Queensland where access is virtually limited to light aircraft? And why did Ward and Knight allow their Melbourne office to include corporate rogues, like Robert Sterling, convicted of fraud, and Brian Raymond Durston, once nominated as a key figure on the Melbourne waterfront, and in the painters and dockers? Knight was born in Geeveston in northern Tasmania on 26 February 1937. He was the eldest of seven children. An above-average student, he matriculated and moved into insurance before starting a wholesale vegetable business. He married on New Year's Eve 1960. He left the vegetable business to do a part-time economics course at the University of Tasmania in Hobart. He drove taxis to help support his wife and two daughters. His first brush with the law came in November 1968 when he opened bank accounts in false names and then tried to milk them through an unsophisticated round-robin. He was convicted on four charges of obtaining goods by false pretences and was given a suspended sentence of 12 months' imprisonment. Knight returned to his studies. completing the course in 1970. He then moved to Sydney, worked in an accountancy practice and studied law and accountancy part-time. TARD was born at Wel- lington in central New T T South Wales on 2 May 1937. While a toddler, his family moved to Bathurst He left school after gaining his Intermediate Certificate. At 18, he was convicted of fraudulent misappropriation while working at the local post office. He then began work with a food-processing firm, studying accountancy part-time. In 1967 he was posted to Sydney in a middle-level management position. He married in 1970. In the early 1970s, Ward was introduced to Frank Nugan, who was then trying to establish a merchant bank. In November 1974, Ward became a director and company secretary of the then fledging Nugan Hand Bank. In 1975, Ward wooed a colleague, Peter Milton Dunn, to Nugan Hand. ,,, Wakoola Pty. Ltd., to end up with the effective company shells provided by Ward and Knight. The directors of Wakoola were well-known painters and dockers, including Johnny Johanson, a key waterfront criminal. Business boomed. Keith Knight drove a white Rolls-Royce, owned a $500,000 home in Sydney, a share in an ocean-going yacht, and in a bank statement in 1980 estimated his net worth at $1,862 million. Ward also gained sudden wealth, estimating in July 1980 his worth at $2.8 million. Durston and Campbell effectively left the tax-avoidance game by late 1979. Ward and Knight continued. In late 1979, Ward and Knight had a leading Sydney Queen's counsel examine the validity of the Camper Timber scheme. In March the following year, the QC advised that the scheme was highly illegal and Ward and Knight could be charged with conspiracy to defraud the Tax Office. To many, that might have been the end of the rort, but not to Ward and Knight. They continued to market avoidance schemes, deliberately lying to prospective clients that the QC's opinion supported the legality of the schemes. One scheme, which was at the hub of the conspiracy to defraud charges they were sentenced on yesterday, was technically called "a sluzkin". It worked by stripping the assets from companies so the companies still had tax liability but no capacity to pay. The charges against Ward and Knight centred on 71 companies being stripped of their assets between 1978 and 1980 and the Tax Office being deprived of about $21.5 million. The Crown prosecutor, Mr Nicholas Cowdery, QC, told the trial in Sydney that internal documents of Ward and Knight referred to documents being consigned to a "watery grave". Some of the documents ended up at a Sydney address which was Financial Planning Consultant software, proven range of investment products, subsidised loans after short qualifying period, computer leasing, excellent package with productivity incentives. Do it now. Send completed resume to

 David Walker, GPO Box 9895, Melbourne, Vic, 3001 OR call (03) 605 3205 or toll free (008) 331 240.

National Australia Financial Management's high-profile Financial Planning Operation is seeking Licensed Consultants to meet demand and expansion. Experienced professionals with first-rate qualifications are invited to apply now. Successful applicants will enjoy: quality lead referral, state-of-the-art computer National Australia FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT BADJAR 

Two bankers : found guilty in $21 million tax fraud case

The Age from Melbourne, Victoria · Page 32

Publication: The Age i

Location: Melbourne, Victoria

Issue Date: Tuesday, May 2, 1989

Page: Page 32

https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/122956194/

Two bankers : found guilty in $21 million tax fraud case Two merchant bankers were found guilty yesterday of conspiring to defraud the Commonwealth of more than $21 million In tax. After considering its verdict for six hours, a jury in the Central Criminal Court in Sydney found Francis Dennis Ward, 51, and Reginald Keith Knight, 52, guilty , of the charges against them. The. trial had lasted several weeks. Mr Justice Loveday remanded, the men in custody to be sentenced, with a third man, Paul Richard Russell, 39, of Baulkham Hills, on 11 May. Russell has' pleaded guilty to the same charge. Ward, of Centennial Park In' Sydney's east, and Knight, of the'.' Gold Coast, had both pleaded not guilty to conspiring to defraud the. Commonwealth of tax between 19 April 1978 and 19 December 1980. ; The prosecution alleged that : the pair were principals of the: merchant bank Ward, Knight and Dunn, which marketed tax' schemes aimed at those interested in reducing their tax liability.' Although their scheme was" technically called a "Slutzkin" after a High Court case of the: same name it was also referred to as a "bottom of the harbor". It ' operated by stripping the assets, from companies so they still had a tax liability, but no resources to pay. The Crown Prosecutor, Mr Nicholas Cowdery, QC, said the scheme allowed businessmen,' with a current-year tax liability, to  transfer money. Plant equipment to a new company .' usually with a similar name and carry on with no tax problem.: The original companv. with tax liability, would be sold through a ' second company to a third company or individual. With no assets, no tax could be paid and there could be no recourse against the original . shareholders because of the legal concept of limited liability. Mr Cowdery said there were references in Ward, Knight and Dunn internal, documents to a, "company undertaker" and to a company being consigned to a . "watery grave". There was no evidence that any of the company documents went to the "bottom of the harbor", although many did turn up in a ' caravan on a property west of Sydney, he said. Mr Cowdery said 71 companies were stripped of their assets in two years, depriving the Commonwealth of $21.5 million in tax. Ward and Knight denied any wrongdoing, saying they were acting as agents with the belief that the ultimate owners of the 71 companies would deal with the tax liabilities. Both said there had been administrative inefficiency, but not dishonesty in the bank. No trial date has been fixed for a fourth man, Mr Emod Tarisz-nyas, 55, of Nerang, Queensland, who has pleaded not guilty to the same charge.

The Most Secret Place On Earth The ClAs Covert War In Laos 2015

Published on Oct 30, 2015

This video is about The most secret places on the earth the Clas Covert war.watch this interesting video.

Category People & Blogs

dang po3 weeks ago

Eventually all of the stories will slowly fade away

100 Best Things to do in South Africa

by Jen Miller

Jen Reviews

https://www.jenreviews.com/best-things-to-do-in-south-africa/

Breath-taking sunsets, an incredible amount of beautiful and diverse wildlife, unspoilt and rugged scenery! These are just a few words to describe South Africa. If you are craving adventure, diversity and excitement, then this ultimate list of the top 100 things to do in South Africa is for you!

Contents

1. The Kruger National Park (Hazyview)

2. Table Mountain (Cape Town)

• 3. Robben Island (Cape Town)
• 4. Cape Winelands (Cape Town)
• 5. Whale Watching (Plettenberg Bay)
• 6. Knysna Elephant Sanctuary (Knysna)
• 7. Bloukraans Bungee (Tsitsikamma)
• 8. Shark Cage Diving (Hermanus)
• 9.Cango Caves (Oudtshoorn)
• 10. The Blue Train (Pretoria/ Cape Town)
• 11. The Otter Trail (Garden Route, Knysna)
• 12. Hot Air Balloon Safaris (Johannesburg)
• 13. Cradle of Humankind (Johannesburg)
• 14. Ukhuthula (Brits)
• 15. Sun City (Rustenburg)
• 16. Soweto (Johannesburg)
• 17. uShaka Marine World (Durban)
• 18. Drakensberg Mountains (Durban)
• 19. Gods Window (Graskop)
• 20. Turtle Tours (Saint Lucia)
• 21. Sabi Sabi Game Lodge (Sabi)
• 22. Tsitsikamma (Plettenberg Bay)
• 23. Canopy Tours (Knysna)
• 24. Augrabies Waterfall (Augrabies)
• 25. Grahamstown Arts Festival (Grahams Town)
• 26. Garden Route (Plettenberg, Knysna)
• 27. Tiffindell Ski Resort (Rhodes)
• 28. Namaqua National Park (Springbok)
• 29. The Owl House (Graaf Reniet)
• 30. Lesedi Cultural Village ( Johannesburg)
• 31. Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (Upington)
• 32. Apartheid Museum (Johannesburg)
• 33. Golden Gate (Clarens)
• 34. Clarens (Bethlehem)
• 35. Orange River Rafting (Vlooisdrift)
• 35. Surfing in Jeffreys Bay.
• 36.Boulders Penguin Colony ( Simons Town)
• 37.Cathedral Peak Drakensberg (Bergville)
• 38. Kimberly Big Hole (Kimberley)
• 39. Scuba Diving Sodwana Bay (Sodwana)
• 40. Addo Elephant Park (Port Elizabeth)
• 41. Monkey Land (Plettenberg Bay)
• 42. Birds Of Eden (Plettenberg Bay)
• 43. The Cango Wildlife Ranch ((Oudtshoorn)
• 44. Cape Agulhas ( L’ Agulhas)
• 45. The Big Tree (Knysna)
• 46. Voortrekker Monument (Pretoria)
• 47. Howick Falls (Howick)
• 48. Fly Fishing in Dullstroom (Dullstroom)
• 49. Shakaland Zulu Cultural Village (Durban)
• 50. Bathurst (Port Alfred)
• 51. Highlands Resort (Clarens)
• 52. Blyde River Canyon (Graskop)
• 53. Riebeek Kasteel (Cape Town)
• 54.Cape Town Cycle Tour(Cape Town)
• 55. Sterkfontein Caves (Johannesburg)
• 56. District 6 Museum (Cape Town)
• 57. Kwena Crocodile Farm (Bela Bela)
• 58. Butterfly Valley Farm (Ramsgate)
• 59.Pilanesberg (Brits)
• 60. Rovos Rail (Pretoria)
• 61. Cape Town Helicopter Rides (Cape Town)
• 62. Swartberg Pass (Prince Albert)
• 63. Maropeng Exhibition(Johannesburg)
• 64. 4×4 Trips (All over South Africa)
• 65. Waterberg (Vaalwater)
• 66. Comrades Marathon (Durban)
• 67. Waenhuiskrans (Arniston)
• 68. Radical Raptors (Plettenberg Bay)
• 69. East Heads Cafe (Knysna)
• 70. Pilgrims Rest (Pilgrims Rest)
• 71. Baviaanskloof (Willowmore)
• 72.Oyster Festival (Knysna)
• 73. Ride an Ostrich (Oudtshoorn)
• 74. Wits Art Museum (Johannesburg)
• 75. Gold Reef City (Johannesburg)
• 76. Brandy Tour Cape Town (Cape Town)
• 77. The Oyster Box Luxury Hotel ( Durban)
• 78.Amphitheater (Drakensberg)
• 79. Pezula Golf Course (Knysna)
• 80. V & A Waterfront (Cape Town)
• 81. Ratanga Junction (Cape Town)
• 81. The Johannesburg Observatory (Johannesburg)
• 82. Union Buildings (Pretoria)
• 83. Rugged Glen (Mount Aux Sources)
• 84. The Old Biscuit Mill (Cape Town)
• 85. Cullinan Diamond Mine (Cullinen)
• 86. Anglo Boer War Museum (Bloemfontein)
• 87. Natural History Museum (Pretoria)
• 88. Hartbeespoort Flea Market (Hartbeespoort)
• 89. Simola (Knysna)
• 90. Anysberg Nature Reserve (Ladismith)
• 91. Noetzie Castle (Knysna)
• 92. Red Barn (Centurion)
• 93. Sandton City (Johannesburg)
• 94. Tswaing Soutpan Meteor Crater (Pretoria)
• 95. Constitution Hill (Johannesburg)
• 96. Pretoria Zoo (Pretoria)
• 97. Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens (Cape Town)
• 98. Monte Casino (Johannesburg)
• 99. The Neighbourgoods Market (Johannesburg)
• 100. Menlyn Mall (Pretoria)

1. The Kruger National Park (Hazyview)

The Kruger National Park is definitely number one on my list of the best things to do in South Africa. Boasting an immense amount of wildlife, you will be able to see all of the big 5; Lions,Leopard, Buffalo, Elephant and Rhino. You can enjoy amazing safaris in the park, and will be able to see all these majestic wild animals in their natural habitat. You will be able to enjoy half day or full day game drives with an experienced guide.

2. Table Mountain (Cape Town)

This massive and gorgeous mountain with views to die for over Cape Town, is a must see in South Africa! You can either take a short 2 hour hike up Table Mountain or enjoy a cable car ride up to the top. The views from the top are magnificent!

3. Robben Island (Cape Town)

One of the most notorious things South Africa has been known for is the injustice of Apartheid. A very historical and informative tour is that of Robben Island. It is 6.9 km out out of the beautiful Bloubergstrand. The island had been used for the imprisonment of criminals. You will be able to go on tours of the foreboding prisons. Nelson Mandela, was imprisoned on Robben Island for 18 years and eventually became a true inspiration for all South Africans and people around the world.

4. Cape Winelands (Cape Town)

Fancy a glass of luxurious Merlot? Crisp Sauvignon Blanc or flirty Rose’? The Cape Winelands is a beautiful place to tour. There are many vineyards to choose from. All offering wine tasting as well as delicious meals that can be paired with the wines. You can choose to either dine in an authentic wine cooler cellar or outside in the vineyards with exquisite views over the mountains.

5. Whale Watching (Plettenberg Bay)

Get up close and personal with these magnificent mammals. You will be able to see Southern Right Whales and Humpback Whales during the winter months in South Africa. South African winters are during June-August and the winters are generally not too cold; be sure to pack in an umbrella or raincoat, as winter months at the coast are rainy. If you would like to have close encounters with dolphins then the summer months are perfect for viewing dolphins in South Africa. This is really an exciting adventure, with exquisite scenery!

6. Knysna Elephant Sanctuary (Knysna)

What could be more exciting than riding on an Elephant!? These ginormous animals are a delight to see. The Knysna Elephant Sanctuary is a beautiful place where elephants are rehabilitated. You will be able to feed them, touch them and even ride on them. There is also a very informative speech about Elephants just before the tour. This is a great experience for anyone and everyone but especially for families with children. The Elephant sanctuary is just 15 minutes from Knysna and is open from 8:30 am (summer) 9:00 am (winter) to 16:00 all year round. These gentle giants are a must see.

7. Bloukraans Bungee (Tsitsikamma)

Are you an adrenaline junkie? Do you love the feeling of freefalling, having the wind rush past you, as if you were flying? Then this is for you. The Bloukraans Bungee is the highest bungee bridge in the whole world! The bridge is 216 meters high! That is definitely something that will get your blood pumping!

8. Shark Cage Diving (Hermanus)

Diving into the deep dark depths of the ocean can be terrifying but facing 100s of razor sharp teeth could be almost unbearable! Shark cage diving off the coast of the Eastern Cape is not for the faint of heart! But this is truly an incredible experience! Come up close and personal with these amazing creatures and see them like you have never seen them before! The tour is about 3-4 hours and you will have great new insights about this remarkable animal. Even though shark cave diving can seem a scary experience, you will in safe hands. This is not an opportunity to be missed.

9.Cango Caves (Oudtshoorn)

Located in an exquisite backdrop, this remarkable cave system is only 29 km from the beautiful and quaint town of Oudtshoorn. You will be amazed with the millions of year old stalactites and stalagmites that decorate the cave. The Cango Cave tour is about 2 hours long and the guides are very experienced and knowledgeable. You have 2 options; You could either enjoy the easy laid back tour of the caves or, for the more adventurous, the adventure tour of the caves. The adventure tour will take you into tiny dark tunnels, and intricate cave systems; Note that the adventure tour is not for pregnant women or people who suffer from claustrophobia. But if you would love to see something humbling and spectacular this tour is a must! Concerts have even been held in the caves before because of the acoustics. A real treat!

10. The Blue Train (Pretoria/ Cape Town)

A breathtaking and luxurious way to see the South African countryside. The Blue Train is a luxurious 5 star hotel that will whisk you away through the gorgeous and diverse South African countryside.You will travel from Pretoria to Cape Town; This is a 27 hour trip but there will be some stops along the way in beautiful little towns of Southern Africa.

11. The Otter Trail (Garden Route, Knysna)

This beautiful hike is 5 days long and 43km. You hike through some of the most breathtaking scenery in South Africa. With raging rivers, lush forests, thunderous waterfalls and beautiful views of the ocean, this hike is a once in a lifetime experience. You will stop at lovely camps for the night that are well appointed. This is really an amazing experience not to be missed.

12. Hot Air Balloon Safaris (Johannesburg)

Imagine flying high above the ground in a hot air balloon; with beautiful scenery down below (you might even see some wild animals.) Hot air balloons are a very romantic and exhilarating thing to do in South Africa.

13. Cradle of Humankind (Johannesburg)

The Cradle of Humankind is a very interesting tour. History enthusiasts will really enjoy this tour. The sites covers 47 000 Hectares of caves. This site is a world heritage site and is famous for the discovery of a 2,3 million year old fossil, nicknamed Mrs Ples. There is also a museum which you can visit with a restaurant.

14. Ukhuthula (Brits)

Have you ever dreamed of holding a lion cub or feeding one with a bottle?If you have, then Ukuthula is a must to go see. Ukuthula is only 80km from O.R Tambo airport. This is a 5 star lodge with excellent food, service and memorable experiences. You can hear the lions roar right up close, touch cheetahs and even walk with the lions. Game rides are also offered. Ukuthula also breeds with white lions. This is a very rare and beautiful thing to see and if you really love Ukutula you can volunteer to help out for a few months. They have a wonderful volunteers programme.

15. Sun City (Rustenburg)

Sun City is a world class resort; offering many hotels, attractions, golf courses and casino. The movie “Blended” with Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore was shot at Suncity. Sun City hosts two amazing championship golf courses where the world’s best play. The sun city resort is also a wonderful place for families; The Valley of Waves offer a variety of water slides and a wave pool. This one stop destination has it all.

16. Soweto (Johannesburg)

Soweto is a huge township just outside of Johannesburg. Soweto is well known for the people who fought for their freedom during the unjust Apartheid years. Nelson Mandela is a famous Sowetan. There are tours of Soweto, Mandela House Museum and at the end of the tours you will be able to enjoy a traditional South African braai (barbeque).

17. uShaka Marine World (Durban)

Excitement, fun, and lots to do, uShaka Marine world is a top class place to enjoy marine diversity, shows as well as so much more. You can meet a dolphin, swim with sharks and even meet a seal. There is also a fun and massive water theme park which has the highest water slide in the Southern Hemisphere. Party hard in the DJ pool, where you can dance and go wild whilst being entertained by local Djs. The fun never stops at uShaka.

18. Drakensberg Mountains (Durban)

In English, Drakensberg is translated as the Dragon Mountains and you will see why when you come upon these gorgeous mountains.This is a massive and mythical mountain range, which captures your attention. The Drakensberg offers many beautiful and unforgettable hikes. Remember to bring a good hiking backpack. In winter it can even snow on the peaks. Its elevation is 3,482 meters and it is 1000 km in length. This truly is magnificent to see. If you are looking for fresh air, peace and quiet, then this is for you.

19. Gods Window (Graskop)

Imagine being so high up that you would be able to see above the clouds. Gods windows is a beautiful vantage point in the Mpumalanga province. This is a 700 meter drop straight down. From the top of Gods window you will be able to see the Kruger Park and it has also been said that on a clear day you can even see the Mozambican shore line. But besides the spectacular scenery, this spot is also known for the many different species of bird life.

20. Turtle Tours (Saint Lucia)

All you can hear are the waves crashing on the shore. The sky is awash with twinkling stars that shine like a million diamonds and just up ahead in front of you is a Giant Leatherback Turtle! Turtle Tours Offer amazing tours at night where you can see these spectacular creatures make their way to the ocean. There have even been Leopard sightings at times. The Leatherback Turtle is the largest turtle on earth. The best time to go from November the 1st till the end of February.

21. Sabi Sabi Game Lodge (Sabi)

Luxury accommodation, beautiful sunsets and amazing safaris await you at the world renowned Sabi Sabi Game lodge. Sabi Sabi is home to the big 5; which are Lion, Rhino, Buffalo, Elephant and Leopard;but there is also a large variety of other animals including Cheetah, Wild Dog and Hyena. This Luxurious game lodge is deep in the heart of the African Wilderness, so if you’re looking to be pampered with an exhilarating African experience, then Sabi is for you.

22. Tsitsikamma (Plettenberg Bay)

Forests, mountains and the ocean. Tsitsikamma is a magical part of South Africa that will leave you in complete awe. There is so much to do in this breathtaking area; From hikes to ocean dune safaris and even mountain biking. The meaning of Tsitsikamma is “Place of sparkling water.” in the Khoi language. This is an exquisite part of South Africa, that those with an adventurous spirit will love.

23. Canopy Tours (Knysna)This is a fun and exciting way to explore the Knysna rain forests. High above the ground in ancient and massive

Yellow Woods trees that are 700 years old! The trees are 30 meters high, so this is something excitingly different to do in South Africa. You will be able to looks down at the luscious forest floor and admire the beauty of the Knysna forests. Who knows? You might even see the legendary Knysna Elephant that has been rumored to roam the forests.

24. Augrabies Waterfall (Augrabies)

A noise so loud, you would imagine a thunderstorm is on the way. The 56 meter waterfall is set in an arid and rocky part of South Africa, so it seems out of place in this desolate part of the country. The Augrabies Falls National Park is a beautiful place to visit, with many hikes, and interesting rock formations to see. You can also go on game drives during the day or at night with a guide. Despite dry landscape you will still be able to see game.

25. Grahamstown Arts Festival (Grahams Town)

Are you an art lover? Do you enjoy the weird, wonderful and the talented? If that is the case then the Grahamstown National Arts Festival is not to be missed! This art festival encompasses every aspect of the arts. From art, to theater to dancing and music. The festival runs during the winter months of South Africa from the 29th of June to the 9th of July. So if you are looking for something for sophisticated and less adventurous this art festival is for you.

26. Garden Route (Plettenberg, Knysna)

Have you been craving adventure? Perhaps a long road trip to sort out your thoughts and quiet down your restless soul? The Garden Route is the answer. This exquisite drive stretches between Southern Cape and the Western Cape. The landscape is beautifully diverse and scenic. You will be able to stop along the way and enjoy all the little towns and breathtaking scenery. This gorgeous scenery includes: Forests, mountains, the ocean and so much more.

27. Tiffindell Ski Resort (Rhodes)

Snow in Africa? Really?! You might say. How is that even possible? Well that’s the beautiful thing about South Africa; The diversity! Tiffindell Ski resort has been voted as one of the best ski runs in the world. Set high up in the Drakensberg mountains this beautiful resort is a must see. They have state of the art ski equipment and also snowmaking equipment (just incase mother nature throws a curveball) so that you can enjoy snow throughout the whole of winter. There are also many activities to enjoy at Tiffindell’s in summer.

28. Namaqua National Park (Springbok)

Velvet black skies twinkle with stars at night, while down below the ground is covered with millions of daisies as far as the eye can see. The Namaqua National Park is a fantastic place to visit in South Africa! A place of contrast; with a dry arid type desert, to beautiful oceans and then the most exquisite part, the Namaqua daisies. The daisies bloom early August and September. Book your accommodation now to see this spectacular natural show.

29. The Owl House (Graaf Reniet)

The Owl House is a very interesting museum in the Eastern Cape. The owner Helen Martins was an artist who transformed her home into a work of art. Her home and garden contains hundreds of sculptures of camels, owls and people. The house is also covered with coloured glass, mirrors and wire that add to the strange home. The owl house is open from 9:00 am to 16:45pm from Monday to Friday. If you’re an artist and enjoy the weird and wonderful, then come see The Owl House.

30. Lesedi Cultural Village ( Johannesburg)

Enjoy the warmth of African culture at the Lesedi Cultural Village. You will be greeted with warmth and an amazing experience of how traditional Zulu, Xhosa and Pedi people live.This is a traditional homestead, so you will be able to have an authentic and welcoming experience. You can stay with a traditional African family to enjoy the full experience.

31. Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (Upington)

Soaring temperatures that rise to 40’c, red sand dunes and stars that fill the night sky, the Kgalagadi desert is a magical African experience. You will be able to see many many animals in their natural habitat. Hear the roar of lions at night or the haunting laugh of a hyena. This is a magical experience not to be missed; night game drives and daytime game drives are offered.

32. Apartheid Museum (Johannesburg)

The Apartheid Museum is an excellent place to visit with many exhibitions. If you would like to understand what Apartheid was like in South Africa then a visit to the museum will be an eye opening experience. The museum is open from Monday-Sunday 9:00am -17:00pm

33. Golden Gate (Clarens)

Golden Gate Park gets its name from the colourof the grass and mountains, it all seems to have a beautiful golden colour to it. Be swept away by
massive mountains, beautiful hikes, horse rides and caves. There are many hikes to choose from in Golden Gate; some ranging from easy to quite difficult. Sometimes in winter it even snows, so this is a beautiful place to visit.

34. Clarens (Bethlehem)

Clarens is a gorgeous little town to visit just outside of Golden Gate. With adorable little shops, art galleries and quaint restaurants, Clarens is a perfect stop over. Not only is Clarens a pretty little town but it also boasts exquisite views of the mountains.

35. Orange River Rafting (Vlooisdrift)

Something for the adventurous! River rafting down the orange river is an exciting and different way to see South Africa. The rapids range from easy to moderate. The tour offers half day to 6 day trips. The 6 day trip will be about 65 to 120km. Each night you will stop on the river bank, camp and enjoy a lovely meal.

35. Surfing in Jeffreys Bay.

Perfect swells, cool water and a funky town, J-Bay is the perfect spot for surfers. Many competitions are held here. Strong winds that come down from the mountains, create perfect tubes.. Jeffreys bay is the perfect place for surfers, skateboarders and anyone who enjoys extreme sport. Bring the best surfboard to partake in the fun. There are also many shops in the town that sell name brand surf wear.

36.Boulders Penguin Colony ( Simons Town)

Adorable and comical looking, these little gentleman in their tuxes will steal your heart.
Boulders Penguin Colony is world famous. This is a perfect tour for families,as your children can enjoy watching the penguins and the sea at Boulders because it is a bit warmer than the rest of the Cape seas. The massive boulders also shelter the cove from rough winds so, the sea is calm for children to swim am play in.

37.Cathedral Peak Drakensberg (Bergville)

Fresh crisp air, mountains so colossal that you feel humbled, beautiful hikes and fancy hotels. Cathedral Peak is one of my favourite and most peaceful places in South Africa. It is a 3004 meter high mountain, which is quite a fantastic site to see. One of the most beautiful hotels to stay in is the Cathedral Peak Hotel. You will have exquisite views of the mountains, spa treatments, pools and luxurious rooms to stay in.

38. Kimberly Big Hole (Kimberley)

The Kimberley Big Hole is a very interesting tour if you’re interested in diamonds. The De Beer family has been mining for 120 years and the mine at Kimberley, managed to yield 2722 Kilograms of diamonds. You will also be able to see homes and churches built in the 1800’s that have been preserved. There is a lot of history in Kimberly, including a famous diamond called the Kimberley diamond. This diamond was set in the Russian Crown Jewels but was eventually sold to a private buyer. The diamond is a flawless 70 carat champagne coloured diamond.

39. Scuba Diving Sodwana Bay (Sodwana)

Sodwana Bay is a very quiet slow paced little town that’s part of a nature reserve. The beaches are unspoilt and there is an immense amount of bio diversity. The scuba divingwill indeed prove very fulfilling. You will be able to see all rich amount of sea life in the oceans, from parrot fish, to shark to turtle. This is a real laid back beach holiday. The weather is insanely hot in summer so remember to pack in all the summer essentials. Sodwana Bay is one of the top 10 scuba diving spots in the world. Be sure to see it!

40. Addo Elephant Park (Port Elizabeth)

The Addo Elephant Park is home to more than 600 elephants, if you love elephants come and visit this beautifully diverse national park. Besides elephant you will be able to see hyena, the endangered black rhino and even the big seven; which is: Lions, buffalo, leopard, rhino, elephant, southern right whales and the great white shark (if you take a marine tour)

41. Monkey Land (Plettenberg Bay)

Monkey Land is a sanctuary for all primates that have been hurt, harmed or abandoned. In the Monkeyland Sanctuaries monkeys can roam around free. The tours offered are amazing, as you walk free among these amazing primates. You will encounter Howler monkeys, Swamp Lemurs, capuchins and many more. The tour is about an hour long and you will also cross the highest suspension bridge in the Southern Hemisphere.

42. Birds Of Eden (Plettenberg Bay

Birds of Eden is a beautiful getaway for the whole family. It is the largest free flight aviary in the whole world. You will be walking among many species of birds, all beautiful and unique, in a forest. Birds of Eden is home to some 3500 birds. It is a safe place for birds to be rehabilitated.

43. The Cango Wildlife Ranch ((Oudtshoorn)

The slogan for The Cango Wildlife Ranch is “Comserve, Care, Connect”. That is so true of what they do at the wildlife ranch. The Cango wildlife ranch is home to over 90 species and the tour comprises of very educational and fun lectures. The conservation’s message is to preserve our animals and the environment. You can even swim with crocodiles (while you are safe inside cage) This is a fun family tour with lots of animal interaction; from holding cheetah cubs, to tiger cubs, even feeding many different types of parrots.

44. Cape Agulhas ( L’ Agulhas)

Nothing can be more liberating than having the ocean lap against your bare feet, feeling the salty sea spray kiss your cheeks and realising that you are at the most southern tip of Africa. Cape Agulhas is absolutely breathtaking. With blue blue oceans, rocky beaches and stunning little towns, this is a perfect tourist stop. The Atlantic and the Indian ocean meet here. This is the perfect spot for you to just relax, think and read a good book.

45. The Big Tree (Knysna)

This ancient Yellow Wood will leave you in utter awe. The Big Tree of knysna is estimated to be about 800 years old. It is 36 meters high and 9 meters in diameter.The forests of Knysna and Plettenberg bay area quiet and cool retreat from the scorching African sun. This ancient tree is definitely worth a visit. The hikes to the tree are quick between 4 and 5 km.

46. Voortrekker Monument (Pretoria)

The Voortrekker Monument is a very unique monument that was built in 1949 to commemorate the Pioneers who moved from The Cape to the Northern parts of South Africa. They braved wild animals, tribal people and the unforgiving South African landscape. The monument also has world’s longest historical freeze. It’s a beautiful part of South African history that is a site to see.

47. Howick Falls (Howick)

This magnificent and tall waterfall is a must see. The waterfall is 95 meters high and is in an exquisite setting.There are many legends that surround this mystical waterfall. One legend is that a giant serpent lives in the bottom pool of the waterfall and only a witch doctor can safely approach the waterfall. So, visit the spectacular Howick falls, you might even catch a glimpse of the inkanyamba (giant serpent).

48. Fly Fishing in Dullstroom (Dullstroom)

Beautiful rivers, greenhills, a quaint arty town and awesome pancakes; Dullstroom is a stunning quaint little town. Dullstroom is known for its amazing fly fishing spots as well as horse riding through the countryside. It is a very romantic little town, and a perfect spot for honeymoons.

49. Shakaland Zulu Cultural Village (Durban)

For a truly african experience, a visit to the Shakaland Zulu Cultural Village is something to be treasured. You can choose from a half day tour to a full 2 day tour, where you will be able to see how the Zulu people live. At the cultural village you will experience traditional Zulu dancing, bear making, beadwork and so much more. If you decide to stay for the 2 day tour you will be staying a traditional Zulu beehive hut with all the modern luxuries of today, including DSTV.

50. Bathurst (Port Alfred)

Bathurst is a spooky little town 12km just outside of Port Alfred. It is known for the 1820s British Settlers who were sent there as a buffer between the Xhosa people and the Cape Colony. The town has a lot of interesting little places to see, from nature reserves to a lady who can speak to faeries. There is also coffee shops and a small art gallery. It has been said that on a full moon all the weird and creepy people come out to drink at the Pig and Whistle Pub. You can also visit the giant pineapple which is on a pineapple farm.

51. Highlands Resort (Clarens)

High above the clouds in the edge of the mountain, rests a romantic and quiet resort. The highlands resort is an excellent spot for meditation, relaxation and hot chocolate. These log cabins are situated high up in the Golden Gate mountains. Its an exquisite place to visit in either winter or summer. In winter you might be able to see snow and in summer there are beautiful various hikes to do as well as self driven game drives. This spot is for those seeking solace and peace.

52. Blyde River Canyon (Graskop)

Enjoy the magnificent scenery of the Blyde River Canyon! The Blyde River Canyon is the third largest canyon in the world. This is the perfect place to hike and enjoy unforgettable views.

53. Riebeek Kasteel (Cape Town)

Nestlesd safely in the gorgeous Kasteel Mountains is the little town of Riebeek Kasteel. This beautiful town is surrounded by
vineyards , olive groves and unforgettable mountains.Riebeek Kasteel has been called the mediterranean of Africa. This is a magical little town to visit that will leave you in awe. It is also one of the oldest towns in South Africa.

54.Cape Town Cycle Tour(Cape Town)

Do you love cycling? Are you looking for a new challenge? Then the Cape Town Cycle Tour is for you. It is the world’s largest timed race with the best mountain bikes on display. The rout is 109 km through some of the most breathtaking scenery in the world. There are some 35000 cyclists who enter. The event date for this year is the 12 of March.

55. Sterkfontein Caves (Johannesburg)

The Sterkfontein Caves are world famous for its ancient fossil finds. The one fossil which they found was more than 3 million years old. This is a world heritage site and is definitely worth a visit. The tours go deep into the caves, where you will also see an underground lake and beautiful stalactite and stalagmite formations.

56. District 6 Museum (Cape Town)

District six was a suburb during the Apartheid years that had as many as 1900 families living there. The families were forcibly removed from their homes so that the area could become a “whites only” neighbourhood. 60 000 people were relocated to the Cape Flats. This was a gross injustice and at the District Six museum you will be able to learn more about this bleak part in South Africa’s history.

57. Kwena Crocodile Farm (Bela Bela)

This crocodile sanctuary is a scary but fun experience for the whole family. You will be able to see these ancient dinosaur looking creatures up close.
Kwena is also home to the biggest captured Nile crocodile in the world and home to 7000 other crocs. They also have feeding sessions where you will be able to see these massive creatures jump for chickens and eat them.

58. Butterfly Valley Farm (Ramsgate)

Beautiful colours all around, fluttering fleeting butterflies. The Butterfly Valley farm breeds all South African Butterflies. There is a dome where you will be able to walk around, and these graceful creatures will fly around you. During the tour you will also learn how to conserve butterflies in your area.

59.Pilanesberg (Brits)

The Pilanesberg National Park is right next to Sun City. It is home to the Big 5 and set in an exquisite setting.There are also hides that you can sit in to view the wildlife. Enjoy seeing hippo, crocodile, leopard and giraffe. There are also various restaurants that you can dine in with views of watering holes. There are also lovely campsites.

60. Rovos Rail (Pretoria)

Take a journey back in time and enjoy seeing South Africa on the exquisite and enchanting Rovos Rail. This train has been beautifully restored in the victorian fashion and is a luxury five star hotel that stops at various destinations throughout South Africa and Even Namibia and Tanzania. The journey to Cape Town starts in Pretoria and is a 1600km journey through a vast and rich variety of scenery.

61. Cape Town Helicopter Rides (Cape Town)

Get a unique and exciting view of Cape Town in a helicopter ride. You will see Table Mountain, Cape Town Harbour, the sea and the city of Cape Town. There are various trips to choose from at various prices.This is truly an exciting experience.

62. Swartberg Pass (Prince Albert)

If you are planning to drive through South Africa, be sure not to miss the Swartberg Pass. There are many historical spots along the way which one can stop at and enjoy. The road is gravel, therefore it is best to drive slow and enjoy the scenery; Or if you like, let someone else do the driving, while you ride your bike.

63. Maropeng Exhibition(Johannesburg)

This interesting museum is dedicated to the evolution of mankind throughout the ages. This is a self guided tour, with an exciting underground boat ride, that takes you through the stages of humankind and the earth.You will be able to see fossils and ancient tools that were used by our first ancestors.

64. 4×4 Trips (All over South Africa)

Exciting adventures await with many different 4×4 trips, throughout South Africa. You can choose from easy to more challenging. Some trips last for a few hours to a few days in various nature reserves. Drive through rivers and mud; Over mountains and rocks. You will even drive down or up some sand dunes.

65. Waterberg (Vaalwater)

The Waterberg Game Reserve is wonderful game park to visit that’s close to Johannesburg and also malaria free. The park boasts many different short day hikes, horse rides, game drives and there’s also a goats cheese farm close by.

66. Comrades Marathon (Durban)

Are you athletic and looking for an incredible challenge that has people from all over the world coming to compete? If your answer is YES! Then the Comrades marathon is for you. The race is 88 km long and the route is from Durban to Pietermaritzburg. There is an allowance of only 20 000 runners, so book your spot quickly if you would like to compete this year. The date for 2017 is the 4th of June.

67. Waenhuiskrans (Arniston)

This ancient mythical cave in the beautiful little town of Arniston is a true gem. You can walk to the cave through Dunes or at Low Tide. The cave is large that legend had it that an Ox wagon with a oxen could turn around in the cave. There is even an 1800s shipwreck to see. Arniston boasts sparkling blue water, white sand beaches and adorable Cape Dutch style homes.

68. Radical Raptors (Plettenberg Bay)

Radical Raptors is a rehabilitation center for birds of prey. This is an excellent and educational tour for the whole family. There are bird flight demonstrations, where you will be able to have owls, hawks and the like rest on your hand. Radical Raptors aims at public awareness of these magnificent creatures. The demonstration and interaction is 45min long.

69. East Heads Cafe (Knysna)

Spectacular views, delicious food and friendly service. This is one of the most exquisite places to eat in South Africa with gorgeous views of the Knysna Heads, the lagoon and the sea. A definite must in my books. Make sure to have one of their refreshing cocktails and yummy fish and chips.

70. Pilgrims Rest (Pilgrims Rest)

The tiny town of Pilgrim’s Rest has been declared a National monument because of the early gold rush in the area. This is a stunning little town nestled in the mountains. It’s the perfect place to go horse riding. Beautiful mountains and forests decorate this ancient town. There are museums to see, hikes to do, gold panning and of course horse riding.

71. Baviaanskloof (Willowmore)

Baviaanskloof means The Valley of Baboons in the Dutch language. This beautiful area is known for exquisite mountains, fresh fast running streams and a variety of fauna and flora, as well as wildlife. There is also a vast amount of history in the area that points to our first human ancestors.

72.Oyster Festival (Knysna)

Fun for everyone, the Knysna Oyster festival is one of the best and most loved festivals to attend in South Africa. Offering awesome food, drink and a variety of entertainment for the whole family. The dates for the oyster festival this year will be from the 7th to the 16th of July.

73. Ride an Ostrich (Oudtshoorn)

Riding an Ostrich is a hilarious and unforgettable experience! The Cango Ostrich farm is a beautiful place to visit just a few kilometers away from Oudtshoorn. There are guided tours every 20 min.You will be able to see, touch and even ride these funny looking birds!

74. Wits Art Museum (Johannesburg)

Are you an art connoisseur? Do you enjoy admiring and analyzing wonderful art pieces? Then come to South Africa and be sure not to miss the Wits Art Museum. The museumoffers a wide variety of African contemporary, classical and historical art.

75. Gold Reef City (Johannesburg)

Fun, excitement and a thrilling experience! Gold Reef City is one of the top family attractions in South Africa. There are a wide range of rides for everyone of all ages to enjoy. There are also various hotels, casinos, and restaurants. Gold Reef City is made to look like an old mining town, so it is a very unique experience.

76. Brandy Tour Cape Town (Cape Town)

If you love brandy then you are in for a treat. The Van Ryns Distillery is known as the world’s best brandy distillery. Set in an exquisite setting along the Cape Wine Routes, the Van Ryns Distillery has been around since the 1800s. You can enjoy a relaxing tour, while enjoying delicious brandy,chocolate and gourmet food.

77. The Oyster Box Luxury Hotel ( Durban)

Stay in this gorgeously luxurious hotel that rests majestically on the hill overlooking the Indian Ocean. The rooms boast absolute luxury with breathtaking views of the ocean. There are wonderful fine dining restaurants to choose from and even dolphin watching from the terrace.

78.Amphitheater (Drakensberg)

The phenomenal amphitheater is the most photographed spot in the drakensberg. Exquisite scenery and beautiful hikes await in this jewel of africa. There are various hikes to enjoy. The
Tugela Gorge hike is 22km and it takes about 8 hours to complete. You will also be able to see the magnificent Tugela falls that is 980m high. This is a spectacular part of South Africa which is perfect for nature lovers.

79. Pezula Golf Course (Knysna)

Pezula is a championship golf course with spectacular views of the sea. It is one of the most scenic golf courses in the world, with a marvelous 18 hole course. The course was designed by David Dale and Ronald Fream of America. There is also a 5 star spa in Pezula, so the wives can enjoy being pampered, while the men enjoy one of the most magnificent courses ever.

80. V & A Waterfront (Cape Town)

For an exciting shopping experience, be sure to visit the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town. Set along the gorgeous Cape Town Harbour, this is a wonderful stop for good food, great shopping and awesome live music.There are more than 450 stores to enjoy.

81. Ratanga Junction (Cape Town)

Exciting rides in the heart of Cape Town! Ratanga Junction is fun, fun, fun! The Cape Cobra ride is a looping roller coaster that throws riders from the height of 32 meters.The speed of this exciting roller coaster is 100 km per hour. There are many more fun things to do in the park, and this is a great place for families to visit.

81. The Johannesburg Observatory (Johannesburg)

For those interested in science and astronomy, the Observatory in Johannesburg is a very educational and interesting tour for families. There are different exhibits to see that stimulates a love for science and astrophysics. There are also night tours that allow people to get involved in exciting astronomy activities.

82. Union Buildings (Pretoria)

The Union Buildings are an important heritage site in South Africa. It is the seat of parliament in South Africa. This beautiful sandstone building is set in beautiful gardens with terraces. There is also a massive statue of Nelson Mandela just outside. The building is 285 meters long and was designed by Sir Herbert Baker in the early 1900’s. There is a lot of history surrounding this monumental building. Unfortunately you won’t be allowed in the building but you will be able to explore the outside. A particularly beautiful time to visit is in October when all the purple Jacaranda flowers are in bloom.

83. Rugged Glen (Mount Aux Sources)

This breathtaking nature reserve is a must see! It isn’t a massive nature reserve, but it boasts
exquisite hiking trails and fishing spots. This beautifully quiet, peaceful and majestic part of South Africa is also interesting in a historical sense. There are traces of ancient human history in the area which shows man’s presence from millions of years ago.

84. The Old Biscuit Mill (Cape Town)

This adorable warm and quaint little town in the heart of Cape Town is for those who love good food, awesome music and a trendy vibe. The Old biscuit mill is filled with artists, photographers, architects and food connoisseurs. The town use you be an old biscuit mill and is filled with history too.

85. Cullinan Diamond Mine (Cullinen)

The world’s largest rough diamond was found here at the Cullinan Diamond mine which was, 3106ct; It weighed 621 grams. The mine offers tours of a working mine, and the town of Cullinan is a real treat. The town offers quaint little shops, restaurants and flea markets. The tours of the mine takes about 2 hours. There is also The Cullinan Diamond Shop to visit, if you are interested in buying diamonds.

86. Anglo Boer War Museum (Bloemfontein)

If you are interested in understanding South Africa and the history which moulded it, then a visit to the Anglo Boer Museum should be on your list of things to do in South Africa. The exhibit is excellent as it helps you to understand how the war unfolded.

87. Natural History Museum (Pretoria)

This beautiful old museum had been around since 1892. The museum has educational exhibits of South African natural history, including the hominid Mrs Ples and other follis, skins and skeletons.

88. Hartbeespoort Flea Market (Hartbeespoort)

Set outside with many, many stalls the Hartebeespoort Flea market is the perfect place to get gifts for family back home. The flea market offers a large variety of African arts and Crafts, food stalls and entertainment. This is the best stop over for souvenirs from South Africa.

89. Simola (Knysna)

Simola Golf Course is set in between parts of the forests of Knysna as well as the mountains. This is an exquisite place to play golf. Peaceful scenery will unwind your weary muscles, as you enjoy an excellent game of golf. There is also a hotel and spa on the premises.

90. Anysberg Nature Reserve (Ladismith)

No cell reception, peace, quiet and solitude. The Anysberg Nature reserve is the perfect getaway if you need a place to runaway to, from all the hustle and bustle of city life. Anysberg Nature reserve is in a semi arid desert, with gorgeous mountains, gorges and three rivers that feed this arid area. You will be able to see a lot of wildlife too.

91. Noetzie Castle (Knysna)

This secluded and flawless beach is really a special part of South Africa. White sand, rough, wild seas and a river that runs into the Indian Ocean. The word “Noetzie” means “black water” in the Khoisan language. The river that flows into the sea is a dark orange-black color, from all the minerals. There are no actual historical castles but there are homes that a person can rent that look like castles.

92. Red Barn (Centurion)

If cycling is your thing, The Big Red barn, has an amazing track for mountain bikers. You will ride through a 200 hectare forest of massive eucalyptus trees.; there are many technical aspects to the track as well. The Red barn also has a zip line for the kids and an awesome restaurant for the moms to relax at. Enjoy the flea market on saturdays too.

93. Sandton City (Johannesburg)

This huge and trendy mall is a definite must see in Joberg. Offering more than 300 stores, Sandton city has it all! All the top name brand stores are there, as well as trendy restaurants and jewellery stores. Shop to your heart’s content among the posh and cosmopolitan people of Sandton.

94. Tswaing Soutpan Meteor Crater (Pretoria)

More than 200 000 years old this massive meteor crater is 1 km in diameter and 100 meters high. There is a museum just opposite the crater, where you can learn more about it and the speed at which it hit the earth. Today, it tools like a salt lake.

95. Constitution Hill (Johannesburg)

A former prison, this building is now a museum that testifies to South Africa’s history. Many famous South Africans were held prisoner here, including Nelson Mandela and others. There are interesting tours held throughout the day; Learn about South Africa’s turbulent history and hear the whispers from the past.

96. Pretoria Zoo (Pretoria)

Come and experience a wide variety of animals up close. The Pretoria Zoo is the biggest Zoo in the country, with an aquarium and a replie park. Voted one of the best Zoos in the world, the Pretoria Zoo has some 9500 animals. You can hire a golf cart, take the zoo train or enjoy a cable cart ride. This is a fun family trip.

97. Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens (Cape Town)

Relaxation and gorgeous scenery, The Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens is 52 800 sq km of indigenous fauna and flora. One of the most beautiful botanical gardens in the world, this is a real feast on the eyes. Boasting 9000 different species of plants, you will be able to enjoy and see the beauty of South Africa’s diversity.

98. Monte Casino (Johannesburg)

An awesome casino, that has been made to resemble a tuscan town, Monte Casino is a loved spot for tourists and South Africans. There are many gourmet restaurants, a beautiful theater as well as movies. This is a one stop entertainment hub.

99. The Neighbourgoods Market (Johannesburg)

It’s all about the vibe! The neighbourgoods market is known for artisan foods, unique stalls and funky music. A place for people to meet, experience and share ideas. The market is in Johannesburg city center and is open every Saturday.

100. Menlyn Mall (Pretoria)

Menlyn Mall has now been dubbed the largest mall in Africa. With fantastic designer stores, international food brands, including Starbucks and Krispy Kreme; This is a must see in Pretoria. There is a fantastic movie theater and entertainment center for kids.

And there you have it! The top 100 things to do in this magnificent country!

CategoriesBest Things To Do In, TravelPost navigation

100 Best Things to do in Austria

100 Best Things to do in England

AUSTRALIA SUPSPECTS BANK LINK TO C.I.A.

Special to the New York Times

Published: November 13, 1982

http://www.nytimes.com/1982/11/13/business/australia-supspects-bank-link-to-cia.html

SYDNEY, Australia, Nov. 12— Australian detectives are expected to visit the United States and Southeast Asia in the next few weeks as they attempt to determine whether the failed Sydney-based Nugan Hand Merchant Bank was involved in trafficking in heroin and covert activities of the United States Central Intelligence Agency.

Under particular scrutiny will be the work carried out for Nugan Hand by retired United States Government officials and military officers between 1977 and 1980, when one of the bank's founders, Frank Nugan, was found shot dead and the other, Michael Hand, vanished. The bank collapsed following Mr. Nugan's death.

In a report released earlier this week, the Australian Government said it had uncovered evidence of a link between the C.I.A. and Nugan Hand. The report, heavily censored because the Government thought publication might inhibit the investigations, was made by police studying the possible involvement of the bank in drug trafficking.

The report said Mr. Hand, who was born in New York City, and a Nugan Hand associate, Bernard Houghton, a 62-year-old Texan who was the bank's representative in Saudi Arabia, had a background in American intelligence before they arrived in Sydney in 1967.

Mr. Hand, who became an Australian citizen in 1979, is believed to be in the United States, the report said. A 'Strong Inference'

The police report said of Mr. Hand: ''His business activities in the late 1960's and the early 1970's with members of the C.I.A.- controlled airline, Air America, and C.I.A.-connected Continental Air Service, and Agency for International Development led to the strong inference that Hand's intelligence activity was with the C.I.A.

''There is some evidence to suggest that Hand retained his U.S. intelligence ties through the 1970's and probably into the 1980's. Houghton was associated with U.S. intelligence personnel in Southeast Asia and Australia, and had some type of association with personnel in the Australian security and intelligence organization.''

Kevin Newman, Australia's administrative services minister, said in a statement that senior American officials had assured him that the C.I.A. had no involvement in the bank. The report said it was not drawing conclusions about C.I.A. involvement with the bank, and its only recommendation was that further investigation was warranted.

(In Washington Friday, a spokesman for the Central Intelligence Agency said it was his understanding that the Australian investigation had turned up new information suggesting C.I.A. involvement in the bank. But, said Dale Petersen, the spokesman for the agency, ''We've checked everything and have found no linkages.'')

The censored part of the report is believed to discuss links between Nugan Hand and organized crime, establishing that the bank was involved in heroin smuggling. Millions of Dollars Transferred

Among the deletions were nearly two pages following the heading, ''The unfinished investigation. United States personnel involved.''

Almost 40 pages of the 240-page report were devoted to Mr. Houghton. The report said that when Mr. Houghton ran the Saudi Arabian office, the bank transferred millions of dollars out of Saudi Arabia. The money has yet to be traced.

Many pages relating to Mr. Houghton were deleted. The sections include ''The destruction of Nugan Hand records;'' his meetings in 1979 with a former C.I.A. operative, Edwin P. Wilson, who was recently arrested in the United States and charged with exporting explosives to Libya to help train terrorists, and one headed, ''Houghton and two Australian clients of Nugan Hand - a case of fraud?'' Colby Is Named

The report included a list of Americans who worked for Nugan Hand. Among them were Rear Adm. Earl Yates, U.S.N., retired, the first president of Nugan Hand International; William E. Colby, Director of Central Intelligence from 1973 to 1976, who worked as legal adviser to Nugan Hand International after 1979; Walter McDonald, former economist and oil expert at the C.I.A., who joined Nugan Hand International in 1979 as a consultant; Brig. Gen. Edwin Black, U.S.A., retired, the bank's representative in Hawaii; Lieut. Gen. LeRoy Manor, U.S.A.F., retired, the Nugan Hand representative in Manila; Dr. Guy Pauker, a consultant to Nugan Hand International, and Dale Holmgren, the bank's Taiwan representative, who was an Army officer in Taiwan.

Apart from the police investigations, a Royal Commission on drug trafficking is also looking into activites of the Nugan Hand Bank.

Illustrations: Photos of figures in the scandal of the Nugan Hand Merchant Bank

Sydney Solicitor Lennard Keith Knight (formerly known as Reginald Keith Knight)
was jailed for tax fraud to as part of the help ASIO and the Australian Federal Police
gave to help protect CIA Operative Michael Hand...
Sydney Solicitor Lennard Keith Knight (formerly known as Reginald Keith Knight)
was jailed for tax fraud for two years and eight months, with a minimum prison time of two years, along with his business partner Francis Dennis Ward of Ward, Knight and Dunn for $21.5 million in Australian Taxation Frauds, which was the tip of the iceberg of an estimated over $1 billion in tax fraud and money laundering done for the CIA's controlled Nugan Hand Bank and their major international drug distribution partners..

".... If I wrote a book about what I knew regarding the Nugan Hand Bank I would be rich ..howver I would also be dead in the week...." .. Lennard Keith Knight (formerly known as Michael John Moloney)... International Taxation Solicitor that worked for the Nugan Hand Bank after he was released from prison on fraud charges to help cover up and to help protect CIA Operative Michael Hand...
It is understood that Keith Knight is now living in Gingin, Western Australia and running a blind and security door business....

CIA Operative Michael Jon Hand/Fuller, Patricia Swan (the secretary at the Nugan Hand Bank) and Michael John Moloney (solicitor for the Nugan Hand Bank and CIA Operative Bernie Houghton, the previous owner of the Burbon and Beef Steak Bar in Kings Cross Sydney) ... were the only people charged in connection to the massive Nugan Hand fraud/arms dealing/drug running/money laundering/taxation evasion scandal, which ended up with the Nugan Hand Bank going into liquidation with around $100 in real assets and around $50 million in debts .. leaving a trail of Australians and USA Citizens having lost their life savings .... however CIA Operative Michael Jon Hand/Fuller quickly disappeared after CIA Operative Michael Jon Hand/Fuller, Patricia Swan (the secretary at the Nugan Hand Bank) and Michael John Moloney with the help of other Nugan Hand Staff, destroyed and removed the incriminating filed at the Sydney offices of the Nugan Hand Bank .. with threats being made to the staff that is they did not help with the destruction and removal of incriminating files from the Nugan Hand Office, they will find themselves in body bags and also start to receive body parts of their wife and children in the post  ....

FOUND After 35 Years: CIA’s Fugitive Banker

Partying At The Nugan Hand Bank And The Misadventures In The Pacific

James Ambas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQBOMNCncVw&app=desktop

Published on Jul 13, 2011

This is part 1 of a show Dave Emory and Nip Tuck did on December 3, 1986.

Websites:
http://spitfirelist.com/anti-fascist-...
http://spitfirelist.com/

Categor News & Politics

More Nugan Hand Partying, Falcon's Trip The Rio Grande, And The Meditteranean Connection

James Ambas

Published on Jul 13, 2011

This is part 2 of a show Dave Emory and Nip Tuck did on December 3, 1986.

Websites:
http://spitfirelist.com/anti-fascist-...
http://spitfirelist.com/

Category News & Politics

Merchants of Menace review: What really went on with the Nugan Hand Bank swindle

DECEMBER 16 2015- Wayne Grogan

Merchants of Menace: The True Story of the Nugan Hand Bank Scandal
PETER BUTT
BLACKWATTLE PRESS, $29.99

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/merchants-of-menace-review-what-really-went-on-with-the-nugan-hand-bank-swindle-20151214-glmzy4.html

Merchants of Menace by Peter Butt traces a negative space of deep politics. Photo: Supplied

The recent discovery by documentary maker Peter Butt that Michael Hand was living in Idaho reawakens the mystery of the Nugan Hand Bank, a CIA front that stole more than $50 million from investors in arguably Australia's greatest criminal conspiracy.

In 35 years since escaping Sydney, all that has been revealed about Hand is his drug-running modus operandi, via the exposed work of CIA clone Ollie North. But Hand was the prototype "action officer".

Butt's book about the bank's operations, Merchants of Menace, traces a negative space of deep politics, where a rogue club can access a secret global network to implement illegal programs and remain outside any government overview.

With pinning clarity, Butt also accounts for Hand's undercover mission in Angola. Using Frank Nugan in Sydney to shelter the money flow, Hand delivered weapons to the white buffer states of Rhodesia and Mozambique. Any stifling of communism was fine with Hand. 

Hand also loved killing commies. We get a close-up of his fearsome Vietnam exploits in interviews with Douglas Sapper, a combat buddy from the days of Special Forces training. Sapper, an admirer of Hand but sharp on the folly of his appetites, became a Nugan Hand fixer and occasional soldier of fortune. He is a reliable narrator, cynical enough to be unaffiliated and real enough to let the truth breathe.

In using Sapper's confessional detail to counterpoint a documentary timeline of the bank's crimes, Butt gives the reader an intimate seat at the conspirators' table. What shocks is the level of damage they were prepared to cause in Australia, revealed here for the first time.

Operating in such a weightless space was perfect for Nugan's lust to become the richest man in Sydney. Nugan is outlined as willing enough to do people in, and by the late 1970s heroin in Sydney had become a flood through the bank's laundering of drug-dealer profits.

In using Sapper's confessional detail to counterpoint a documentary timeline of the bank's crimes, Butt gives the reader an intimate seat at the conspirators' table. What shocks is the level of damage they were prepared to cause in Australia, revealed here for the first time.

Operating in such a weightless space was perfect for Nugan's lust to become the richest man in Sydney. Nugan is outlined as willing enough to do people in, and by the late 1970s heroin in Sydney had become a flood through the bank's laundering of drug-dealer profits.

To the cold eye of Bourbon & Beefsteak owner and CIA point-man Bernie Houghton, sketched like someone with a dead heart, Nugan was an accident waiting to wreck everything. 

The good timing of Nugan's death is the other big mystery accorded fresh eyes and more detail here. Overwhelming pressures – suspicious heavy criminals, advanced alcoholism and deteriorating control over the bank's fraudulence – pushed Nugan to get religion. It's moot whether or not the Spirit moved him towards redemption, but he did start to protest the bank's darkness to his machiavellian American friends. 

Interest now lies in an explanation from the found Hand. What's likely is the blankety-blank of US "national security".

Wayne Grogan's 2008 novel, Heavy Allies (Brandl & Schlesinger), is about the Nugan Hand Bank.

AUSTRALIA SUPSPECTS BANK LINK TO C.I.A.

Special to the New York Times

Published: November 13, 1982

http://www.nytimes.com/1982/11/13/business/australia-supspects-bank-link-to-cia.html

SYDNEY, Australia, Nov. 12— Australian detectives are expected to visit the United States and Southeast Asia in the next few weeks as they attempt to determine whether the failed Sydney-based Nugan Hand Merchant Bank was involved in trafficking in heroin and covert activities of the United States Central Intelligence Agency.

Under particular scrutiny will be the work carried out for Nugan Hand by retired United States Government officials and military officers between 1977 and 1980, when one of the bank's founders, Frank Nugan, was found shot dead and the other, Michael Hand, vanished. The bank collapsed following Mr. Nugan's death.

In a report released earlier this week, the Australian Government said it had uncovered evidence of a link between the C.I.A. and Nugan Hand. The report, heavily censored because the Government thought publication might inhibit the investigations, was made by police studying the possible involvement of the bank in drug trafficking.

The report said Mr. Hand, who was born in New York City, and a Nugan Hand associate, Bernard Houghton, a 62-year-old Texan who was the bank's representative in Saudi Arabia, had a background in American intelligence before they arrived in Sydney in 1967.

Mr. Hand, who became an Australian citizen in 1979, is believed to be in the United States, the report said. A 'Strong Inference'

The police report said of Mr. Hand: ''His business activities in the late 1960's and the early 1970's with members of the C.I.A.- controlled airline, Air America, and C.I.A.-connected Continental Air Service, and Agency for International Development led to the strong inference that Hand's intelligence activity was with the C.I.A.

''There is some evidence to suggest that Hand retained his U.S. intelligence ties through the 1970's and probably into the 1980's. Houghton was associated with U.S. intelligence personnel in Southeast Asia and Australia, and had some type of association with personnel in the Australian security and intelligence organization.''

Kevin Newman, Australia's administrative services minister, said in a statement that senior American officials had assured him that the C.I.A. had no involvement in the bank. The report said it was not drawing conclusions about C.I.A. involvement with the bank, and its only recommendation was that further investigation was warranted.

(In Washington Friday, a spokesman for the Central Intelligence Agency said it was his understanding that the Australian investigation had turned up new information suggesting C.I.A. involvement in the bank. But, said Dale Petersen, the spokesman for the agency, ''We've checked everything and have found no linkages.'')

The censored part of the report is believed to discuss links between Nugan Hand and organized crime, establishing that the bank was involved in heroin smuggling. Millions of Dollars Transferred

Among the deletions were nearly two pages following the heading, ''The unfinished investigation. United States personnel involved.''

Almost 40 pages of the 240-page report were devoted to Mr. Houghton. The report said that when Mr. Houghton ran the Saudi Arabian office, the bank transferred millions of dollars out of Saudi Arabia. The money has yet to be traced.

Many pages relating to Mr. Houghton were deleted. The sections include ''The destruction of Nugan Hand records;'' his meetings in 1979 with a former C.I.A. operative, Edwin P. Wilson, who was recently arrested in the United States and charged with exporting explosives to Libya to help train terrorists, and one headed, ''Houghton and two Australian clients of Nugan Hand - a case of fraud?'' Colby Is Named

The report included a list of Americans who worked for Nugan Hand. Among them were Rear Adm. Earl Yates, U.S.N., retired, the first president of Nugan Hand International; William E. Colby, Director of Central Intelligence from 1973 to 1976, who worked as legal adviser to Nugan Hand International after 1979; Walter McDonald, former economist and oil expert at the C.I.A., who joined Nugan Hand International in 1979 as a consultant; Brig. Gen. Edwin Black, U.S.A., retired, the bank's representative in Hawaii; Lieut. Gen. LeRoy Manor, U.S.A.F., retired, the Nugan Hand representative in Manila; Dr. Guy Pauker, a consultant to Nugan Hand International, and Dale Holmgren, the bank's Taiwan representative, who was an Army officer in Taiwan.

Apart from the police investigations, a Royal Commission on drug trafficking is also looking into activites of the Nugan Hand Bank.

Illustrations: Photos of figures in the scandal of the Nugan Hand Merchant Bank

Welcome to the Sydney Crime Museum, 
the history site of a city founded by criminals.

The Nugan Hand Connection- the Sydney Crime Museum

http://www.sydneycrimemuseum.com/crime-stories/the-nugan-hand-connection/

Merchant banker Frank Nugan viewed the world of high finance like a game of chess. For every move there was always a countermove — until checkmate. If outmanoeuvred when actually playing chess, he would sit back imperiously and utter his favourite saying: ‘so I’m in a corner. So what?’ If he lost he was eager to play again, to try to win another game.

But checkmate came for Frank Nugan on a lonely road west of the Blue Mountains, near Sydney, early on the morning of Sunday, 27 January 1980. A passing police patrol car found his body slumped across the front seat of his white Mercedes sedan. His right hand rested neatly on the butt of a .30 mm rifle, his left hand on the barrel, with the muzzle centimetres away from the side of his bullet-holed head.

Later a coroner found that Nugan, crushed by the strain of walking a business tightrope, had committed suicide.

Like his merchant banking activities, Nugan’s death at first appeared a mystery. There was suspicion that he may have been murdered, but the weight of evidence does point to suicide. An audit of the Nugan Hand Bank books was due within a week and Frank Nugan knew his global billion-dollar empire would be exposed for what it was — an empty sham.

During those last few weeks, Nugan’s behaviour became more frenetic. Already facing conspiracy charges resulting from alleged irregularities in the affairs of a fruit- and vegetable-packing company run by his brother Ken, he now also faced a forced admission of failure and, more shattering, allegations that he had plundered millions of dollars of clients’ funds.

Two days before his death, at least one director threatened to resign unless Nugan could produce securities to match depositors’ funds.

An immensely proud man with an obsession for appearances, Nugan was told he would have to put up his Vaucluse mansion and other assets. He replied: ‘I may as well shoot myself.

Both Nugan and his partner, Michael Jon Hand, who has disappeared, turned to religion as their problems grew. Nugan believed that, all else having failed, he could get God onside. Inside the cover of a pocket edition of the New Testament and Psalms found on his body, he had written: ‘God is our partner — GNH and Co. Isaiah 41.10’. GNH apparently meant God, Nugan, Hand and Co.

The extraordinary cast of people associated with the bank — from a former head of the CIA to prominent members of the Sydney underworld — Nugan’s death, the coroner’s inquiry, the sensational collapse of the bank and Hand’s disappearance have aroused tremendous interest and comment. But so far little information has come forward which explains these events fully.

Days before his death, Nugan went to communion at St. Andrew’s Cathedral, Sydney, where other communicants noticed him sitting by himself, weeping quietly.

Nugan had befriended a lay preacher, Paul Owens, who would often receive a call to go to Nugan’s Macquarie Street office to pray, or spend time with him after morning church services which Nugan attended sometimes three times a week. Once, he confided to Owens: ‘Paul, I’m working my guts out and I just don’t seem to be getting anywhere’.

Owens gave Nugan a Bible, inscribed ‘To Frank from your friend Paul. Mathew 16 — Lo, I am with you always’.

The coroner, Mr Derek Hand SM, found that Nugan had committed suicide because of an ‘accumulation of strain’ which had pushed him beyond breaking point. The inquest had been told of ‘gross and systematic defalcation of gargantuan proportions’.

However, at the inquest, Michael Hand claimed that the prospect of being discovered would not have caused him to commit suicide. ‘I don’t believe he could have given up the ship . . . Frank Nugan was a fighter and I do not believe he would have taken his own life’.

The Nugan Hand Bank was involved extensively in drug activities, including the laundering of drug money.

The explanation for this lies in Frank Nugan’s ambition to make $100 million. To achieve this end he believed the bank would grow quickly with the right ‘front’ — connections with prominent people. He flaunted success in the firm belief — common to many self-made men — that the appearance of success breeds success.



AFR Review Illustration by Michael Fitzjames - The Devil with an apple

Nugan luxuriated in a chauffeur-driven Mercedes, a yacht and his water-front home at Vaucluse.

These trappings were immensely important to him and were reflected in his remarkably gauche suggestion to a Financial Review journalist in 1978: ‘Any time you want to be picked up in front of the Herald (the Sydney Morning Herald) building by the driver and the Merc, just give us a hoy and I’ll send him straight around. That’ll show your mates you’re cutting it with the big time’.

But even though Frank Nugan was unreliable, pushy and boastful, people liked him. The fact that his insecurity and vulnerability were so close to the surface gave him curious charm and appeal. As he said: ‘I’m just a poor Spanish boy battling to make a quid’.

One former employee said: ‘It was quite a sight to see Frank at the end of a day, in full flight, with the best part of a bottle of Johnny Walker Black Label under his belt, cursing his enemies, giving his views on the state of the world or seeking advice from colleagues on how best to tackle his problems — advice which he rarely had the patience to hear all the way through’.

On the other side, the decade of the Nugan Hand Bank paralleled the explosion of illegal drug trafficking into Australia and the increasing financial sophistication of organised crime in Sydney.

Francis John Nugan, the son of immigrant parents from Valencia, Spain, was born in Griffith, NSW, where his father set up his own fruit-packing and distribution business. Frank and his brother, Ken, did well at school and went to Sydney University. Ken graduated in economics and took over the running of the family fruit-packing business.

Frank finished law and, following a stint with the prominent Sydney firm of Dawson Waldron as an articled clerk, gained a Masters Degree in Law at the Berkeley campus of the University of California. From there he began studying for a doctorate in Canada and, though he never completed the degree, years later he would on occasion introduce himself as ‘Dr Nugan’.

Returning to Australia in 1968, aged twenty-six, Nugan spent a year with Freehill, Hollingdale and Page, a large Sydney law firm. Lured by the mining boom, Nugan helped to float Meekatharra Minerals, capitalising his investment after the shares moved from 10 cents to $7.

Flush with his first million, Nugan met Michael Jon Hand. A year older, Hand was a forestry graduate from Syracuse University in New York State and had served as a Green Beret in the US special forces in Vietnam. According to contemporary reports, Hand was one of six survivors of a 200-member unit which held out against 1200 North Vietnamese at Dong Xoai, 135 kilometres north of Saigon, in one of the first major battles of the Vietnam War. He was awarded America’s second highest gallantry award, the Distinguished Service Cross.

In 1969, Hand established a local company, Australasian and Pacific Holdings Ltd, ostensibly to promote tourism and business in the Pacific area. Shareholders included four other Americans — Grant Walters, Robert Petersen, David Houston and Spencer Smith — who all gave as their address the San Francisco office of Air America, since identified as a CIA-controlled airline used for clandestine operations in Vietnam and Laos.

Hand introduced Nugan to some associates whose names have since cropped up in the various royal commissions established to investigate organised crime in NSW and the State’s burgeoning illicit drug trade.

In 1970, Nugan and Hand formalised their relationship by establishing Yorkville Nominees Pty Ltd, an investment advisory company. Three years later they launched Nugan Hand Ltd as a public company, with paid-up capital of $1 million, increased to $2 million four years later.

The new venture was established as an investment banking firm and took over the clients and business developed by Yorkville Nominees.

After less than twelve months, the two expanded to Asia and established Nugan Hand [Hong Kong] Ltd, although it was not until 1976 that they registered the company with the Hong Kong Commissioner of Banking as a deposit-taking company. At the same time, the Nugan Hand Bank was incorporated in Grand Cayman, a British dependency and offshore tax haven in the West Indies.

The Cayman operation was established soon after another venture, the Castle Bank, had been forced to close following revelations that it had been used as a conduit for CIA funds used in undercover operations. According to the Wall Street Journal, the US Internal Revenue Service also found evidence that the Castle Bank had been used for tax evasion by American organised crime.

An investigation by Internal Revenue was abandoned, according to the paper, after the CIA intervened on the grounds that the probe could jeopardise national security. The head of the CIA at that time was William Colby, who subsequently became a legal representative for Nugan Hand in Washington.

However, so far no link has been made between Colby’s CIA role and his legal appointment.

In 1978, Nugan Hand acquired control of the small F. A. Neubauer Bank in Hamburg. The bank now had branches in Sydney, Hong Kong, the Cayman Islands and Germany, operating under the umbrella of a master company, Nugan Hand International, headquartered in Singapore.

Representative offices were also established in Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, Panama, Chile, Argentina, Britain and the US.

Nugan modelled his operation on the secretive banks which handled the private affairs of wealthy clients in 18th century Europe.

Once clients passed money to the bank they were identified solely by a numbered code. Frank Nugan and Michael Hand had their own numbers — 536 and 537. A tiny red dot alongside the code indicated a sensitive client.

A special code was used for money transfers between Sydney and overseas offices, ‘hides’ being used for Australian dollars, ‘latest’ for US dollars, ‘glassware’ for Singapore dollars, ‘radies’ for gold, ‘televisions’ for silver, and ‘raw material’ for cash.

On the surface, Nugan Hand operated the same as any other merchant bank — accepting deposits, re-investing the money, arranging the transfer of money and advising on takeovers. According to bank publicity, it concentrated on the short-term money market. However, the generous rates — offering interest on depositors’ funds three or four per cent higher than ruling rates — was one of the initial reasons for rousing the suspicions of other bankers who speculated openly that Nugan Hand was not engaged in legitimate activities.

Since the collapse of the bank, it has become apparent that much of the money was not re-invested but simply disappeared. On the surface it was all accounted for, but Nugan, in fact, was playing the oldest commercial trick — robbing Peter to pay Paul.

The fiction was developed through the employment of prestigious ‘front’ staff and extraordinary publicity. In 1976, the bank’s Australian turnover was claimed to be $26 million. A year later, according to bank handouts, it had increased eightfold to reach $220 million. Less than twelve months later, Nugan was proclaiming it had passed $1000 million.

However, it was not until late in 1977 that Nugan Hand [Hong Kong] Ltd, supposedly the bank’s biggest money-spinner, secured its first deposit of $1 million. This inclusion gave the group such a boost that Nugan telexed his congratulations and gave the local representative, Leslie Collings, a directorship and salary of $50000 a year. Shortly afterwards, eyebrows were raised in the Hong Kong banking fraternity when it was reported in a radio news broadcast that the group had accepted a deposit of $700 million. The true figure was $700000.

Bank staff in Hong Kong witnessed little first-hand evidence of the billion-dollar turnover. What money they did see arrive was transferred quickly to Sydney, Singapore or the Cayman Islands. The balance sheet for the Hong Kong office at the end of December 1977 disclosed the holding of only $953 903 in deposits.

Although the transactions confused official investigators, the process of one particular deposit in Sydney, unearthed by my investigations, provides an insight into the operations of the bank.

A Sydney security firm, K. & R. Cash, was called to Nugan’s office to deliver a large amount of cash to the South Hurstville branch of the Commercial Bank of Australia. Once the cash was deposited, cheques were made out at Nugan’s direction. For one consignment of $350000 — $300000 in $50 notes and $50000 in $20 notes — Nugan directed K. & R. Cash to make out two cheques in favour of F. J. Nugan. One, dated 4 November 1977, was for $250000 and the other, dated 7 November, was for $100000.

When K. & R. Cash had deposited $109000 for Nugan Hand with the CBA Bank seven months previously — on 4 April 1977 — it had made out the cheque to Nugan Hand. On presentation to the bank, the cheque had been changed, with Nugan Hand altered to Yorkville Nominees Pty Ltd, Frank Nugan’s private company. Other cheques covering deposits for similar amounts were changed in the same way. Thus Yorkville Nominees became the major conduit for the extraction of funds placed with Nugan Hand companies.

It has been discovered that, through Yorkville, Nugan took $500000 to buy his mansion in Coolong Road, Vaucluse, at least $400000 to remodel and furnish it and an estimated $900000 to mount a defence against charges involving his brother Ken’s fruit- and vegetable-packing company at Griffith.

Frank and his brother Ken, along with two ex-NSW detectives Fred Krahe and Keith Kelly, were charged in May 1978 with conspiracy to defraud the Nugan Group Ltd, the family fruit and vegetable empire at Griffith. The charges against Krahe and Kelly were later dismissed, but a magistrate found that a prima facie case existed against Frank and Ken Nugan. Final hearings against the brothers were scheduled when Frank was found dead. Ken Nugan was subsequently convicted and served a gaol sentence.

The remarkable lack of interest in the fate of much of the money lodged with the bank has been attributed by official investigators to the fact that much of it was ‘black’, or obtained illegally.

The involved financial transactions apparently did not stop after Nugan died. Among other deposits under claim in Hong Kong is one for $HK1250000 accepted from Whitehall Finance on 28 January 1980 — the first business day after Nugan’s body was discovered.

Lodged with the group for investment at short notice at an interest rate of 14·75 per cent, it was apparently transmitted from Hong Kong to the Cayman Islands. According to Mr Mike Woollard, a banking expert in the Official Receiver’s Office in Hong Kong, Nugan Hand’s Hong Kong operation acted merely as a ‘conduit of funds for the Cayman Island company’.

In a ‘strictly private and confidential’ report tendered before the Hong Kong Supreme Court by the Colony’s Financial Secretary, Mr David Jefferson, it is disclosed that no record of some deposits existed in company books.

However, to impress and maintain appearances, both Nugan and Hand promoted political connections. As the Washington Post has reported, Nugan arranged to be photographed with President Jimmy Carter. In the Philippines, he befriended President Marcos and in late 1970s the bank hosted an international congress on new enterprises in Manila, Nugan outlaid $75 000 on one Manila ‘bash’ — hiring helicopters to fly in guests from surrounding islands. He announced he was working out details of loans for Filipino firms amounting to $200 million but nobody could explain where the money was coming from.

In another incident involving the bank’s office in Thailand, elaborate arrangements were made to ship about $100 million in gold out of Bangkok. As a former employee relates the story, the deal was arranged through a contact of Imelda Marcos, wife of the Philippines President. Nugan Hand’s Hong Kong office sent an armed van to the Hong Kong airport to take delivery of the expected shipment but it failed to arrive.

Throughout 1977 and 1978, the bank maintained an office not only in Bangkok but also in Chiang Mai, at the heart of the Golden Triangle, the notorious source of much of Asia’s heroin, which lies at the meeting point of Burma, Thailand and Laos. Curiously, its Chiang Mai office was next door to the office of America’s Drug Enforcement Agency.

Nugan Hand’s man, Neil Evans, and DEA’s man, Chuck Wilson, answered each other’s phones and played cards together.

Suspicions about the bank’s involvement in laundering drug money were privately voiced for years and can now be supported in some detail. Police found on Nugan’s body a 15-page list of 194 names of companies and individuals. The money mentioned in the list amounted to several million dollars. Various names were repeated and next to them were comments such as ‘uncollectable’, ‘nil’ or ‘paid in’. Fearing the approaching bank audit, Nugan apparently had prepared the list in a desperate bid to call up funds.

Names in the list included Reg Parkin, gaoled with former NSW policeman Murray Stewart Riley over the much-publicised importation of $46 million worth of buddha sticks from Thailand in the yacht Anoa in 1978. Two references were made to a Ken Dooley — an alias for Kenneth Derley, also convicted with Riley over the Anoa deal. James Randolph Sweetman, who also appears in the list, was convicted in 1970 with Stanley John Smith, better known as ‘stan the Man’, over the attempted sale of amphetamines following a haul from a May & Baker warehouse in Sydney.

Riley and Dooley were observed by authorities entering Nugan Hand’s Sydney office, yet the former denied to the NSW Woodward Royal Commission on drugs that he had any dealings with Nugan Hand. Riley had extensive dealings with the bank in both Sydney and Hong Kong. On his first visit to the Hong Kong office he called himself ‘Mr Murray’ and on his following visit ‘Mr Riley’. When asked what his real name was he replied that it was both, if put together. Riley finally became so well known to the staff that he was given the nickname ‘Mr Blue Eyes’.

Parkin is also remembered well by the bank’s former Hong Kong staff. He left a printed calling card. On his first call, he is believed to have collected $8000 transmitted from Sydney.

On a subsequent visit, he discussed the purchase of a boat with Hand. The Sydney office arranged the transaction of $18000 to Hong Kong for the purchase of a boat — a twin-diesel motor cruiser known as ‘Mashkee Two’. Parkin told the royal commission he had never met Nugan but when the Hong Kong staff refused to advance him money for the boat without authority, he said: ‘I’ll go down to Sydney and see Frank’.

These anecdotes reflect the schizophrenic nature of the operation. At one end there was a legitimate bank with honest, dedicated employees; at the other, a secretive structure designed to work outside the law. As one former employee put it, ‘It often seemed that there were two distinctive operations — the fledgling merchant bank with all its ancillary services, and Frank’s activities, about which little was known’.

The mystery surrounding Nugan continued after his death. At his funeral, as the body was lowered into the grave, Hand turned to an associate and said: ‘I could have sworn I heard the bastard laughing at me’.

from Connections 1 by Bob Bottom

Illustrations by Michael Fitzjames

Frank Nugan  - Background

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Frank_Nugan

Frank Nugan "was born in Griffith in 1942, the son of a Spanish migrant who started a fruit packing business there. The playboy heir to a modest food processing fortune, Nugan got a law degree in 1963 from Sydney University and a Master of Law from Berkeley University in 1965. After working in Canada, he returned to Australia in 1968 and met Bernie Houghton and Michael Hand with whom he established a number of companies, including the Nugan Hand Bank. By the late 1970s, Frank Nugan was calling himself ‘one of the wealthiest men in Sydney’. He drove a gold Mercedes and lived in a million dollar mansion in Vaucluse with a harbour view and its own beach. Half owner of the Nugan Hand Bank, at its prestigious 55 Macquarie Street address, he shared offices overlooking Circular Quay with Sir Robert Askin, recently-retired Premier of New South Wales.

"Askin and his powerful circle were Frank Nugan’s sponsors. Admiral Yates, the President of Nugan Hand Bank, said he accepted the position as Nugan Hand president on the advice of Sir Robert Askin. Admiral Yates said he trusted Askin’s opinion about the bank principals, Frank Nugan and Michael Hand, because Askin knew them well and shared an office with them. Yates said: ‘I inquired of Sir Robert Askin, who had a private office at 55 Macquarie Street with them, and he gave them very strong credentials’. Yates said Askin had told him Nugan and Hand were ‘good solid business people — a little flamboyant, but that was because they were so successful’.

"Nugan touted his skills as a tax consultant and a financial adviser, but his genius lay in deception. Secret accounts were his trademark, and he was gifted at losing money in elaborate deceipts, scattering cheques to create bewildering paper trails. Stewart, in his report into the Nugan Hand Bank, had a diagram of one $30,000 diversion of funds from the Nugan Hand Bank to the Nugan Group in Griffith which Frank Nugan sent through eleven transactions between the source (the Nugan Hand Bank) and its destination in the Nugan Group.

"The Nugan Group, Frank Nugan’s family company, began in 1941 in a primitive shed in Banna Avenue in Griffith, packing fresh fruit and vegetables. By 1977 the Nugan Group was valued at $11 million; it operated a major 5 acre factory complex in Griffith and ran factories in Casino, Lismore and Brisbane. It was one of Australia’s major fruit juice producers, and the largest proprietary fresh fruit and vegetable packers and distributors in the country." 

"Frank attended Griffith High School, the University of Sydney (LL.B., 1964) and the University of California at Berkeley (LL.M., 1965), United States of America. After spending some years in Canada, he returned to Sydney in 1968. He was admitted as a solicitor on 22 November and set up practice. In New York on 23 May 1970 he married Charlotte Lee Sofge, who came from Tennessee.

"That year Nugan was involved, as a director (1970-72), in floating Meekatharra Minerals N.L. to mine nickel, cobalt and copper in Western Australia; its shares rose to $6.90 then fell sharply. With a New Yorker named Michael Hand, Nugan engaged in land-deals and share-trading. In 1973 they set up a merchant bank, Nugan Hand Ltd, with a nominal paid-up capital of $1 million. Between 1976 and 1979 'turnover' reportedly rose from $30 million to $1000 million; the bank opened offices to accept deposits in Hong Kong, Singapore, the Cayman Islands and Saudi Arabia...

"Meanwhile, his elder brother Kenneth had expanded their father's firm, the Nugan Group Ltd, into one of Australia's largest fruit and vegetable distributors; Frank was one of its directors. In 1978 he, Ken and others were charged with conspiracy to defraud the Nugan Group." 

More CIA Treachery: Nugan Hand Bank

Nugan Hand Bank Laundering money  for major illegal drug dealers and a front for the CIA

to move illegal drugs, arms dealing, money laundering,

tax and other fraud, paying off assassins, murderers for hire and paying off people

and to influence the outcome of state and federal elections in Australia and around the world

Editor’s Note: I posted the below article at the American Patriot Friends Network way back in 2003 Part 1 Here; Part 2 Here), and have re-posted it elsewhere over the years. This latest version of the selected excerpts from Alfred McCoy’s masterpiece on the CIA’s dope dealing escapades is more complete than previous postings. Professor McCoy’s book is “The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity In The Drug Trade”.  (See below)

But first a word about the book pictured above: Jonathan Kwitny was sent by the Wall Street Journal to Australia to cover a breaking story about one of the CIA;s drug-smuggling, money-laundering, and arms dealing proprietaries, a bank named Nugan Hand, Ltd. Mr. Kwitny gave us the “story behind the story” regarding the Iran-Contra scandal which disgraced the Ronald Reagan White House. His coverage of the Australian government’s investigation of the Nugan Hand Bank, Ltd, led to the free wheeling dope-dealing escapades of the CIA’s drug dealing, arms trafficking, and money laundering at a larger CIA proprietary bank named BCCI, which the U.S. Senate investigated.

I have typed in passages from pages 461-472 in Alfred W. McCoy’s bombshell book, “The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity In The Drug Trade“, (published by Lawrence Hill Books, Chicago, by arrangement with Harper and Row, Publishers, Inc., New York; ISBN: 1-55652-125-1; this is the second edition, copyrighted by Alfred W. McCoy 1991; first edition copyrighted by Alfred W. McCoy and Cathleen B. Read, 1972.)

 The Politics Of Heroin -

CIA Complicity In The Global Drug Trade by Alfred McCoy

Nugan Hand Bank

At 4:00 a.m. on January 27, 1980, a state police officer patrolling a country road west of Sydney, Australia, noticed a late-model Mercedes sedan parked by the side of the road and stopped to examine it. Inside the constable found the body of a middle-aged male slumped forward, still holding the rifle he had apparently used to shoot himself in the head. Searching his wallet, the police found personal identification for one Frank Nugan, a merchant banker of Sydney, and a calling card from one William Colby, a New York lawyer who had recently retired as director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.

The circumstances of Nugan’s suicide and the bank’s spectacular collapse only six months later have inspired hundreds of press probes, three major Australian government investigations, and a lengthy book by one of America’s best investigative reporters. All have asked the same basic question: What was the relationship between the Nugan Hand Bank and the CIA? Although we have more details about the bank than about any other company with similarly ambiguous CIA connections, the question still defies a concise answer. The Nugan Hand Bank remains a great espionage mystery.

Although the large question about the bank and the agency will probably never be answered, Nugan Hand’s twisted history does offer insights into the world of CIA espionage—in particular, that gray area of alumni, allies, assets, and affiliated companies that do so much of the agency’s covert work. In his memoirs and public statements, William Colby has portrayed his CIA colleagues as “honorable men”, patriots who simply would not, could not tolerate any involvement in drugs by either agency personnel or covert assets. Whatever it may or may not have been, the Nugan Hand Bank was certainly two things: (1)an employer of many retired CIA agents and (2) heavily involved in narcotics trafficking. Unlike most of the agency’s faceless espionage, the carefully documented Nugan Hand case affords a close look at the moral universe of covert operations, particularly the gray sector of CIA proprietaries and affiliates. The Nugan Hand case shows how the CIA’s secret war in Laos, interwoven with the tribal opium trade, produced a covert action cadre with a tolerance for drug dealing.

The Nugan Hand Bank served several constituencies simultaneously, and its various relationships reveal a good dal about the operations of this clientele. Based in Sydney, the bank was a partnership between Australian lawyer Frank Nugan and an ex-Green Beret businessman named Michael Hand. Both worked closely with one of their senior managers, a mysterious American expatriate with impeccable intelligence contacts, Maurice Benard Houghton. Through the three men and their separate, sometimes overlapping networks, the bank cultivated corrupt Australian politicians, Sydney crime syndicate, a fraternity of ex-CIA arms dealers, and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.

In less than a decade after its incorporation in Sydney in 1973, Nugan Hand Limited went through a complete cycle from modest origins to spectacular global expansion to precipitous collapse. During its eight-year life, the bank’s character was shaped by its three principals. Son of a Spanish migrant fruit packer, Francis Nugan grew up in Griffith, New South Wales, in the country west of Sydney, graduated in law from Sydney University, and did some spotty postgraduate legal studies in California and Canada. Nugan would later claim that he played a major role in rewriting Canada’s tax law while studying abroad, but records show that he was employed as a minor clerical assistant. His name does appear among the twenty-seven listed in the tax review’s final report. While his brother Ken built the family produce business, the Nugan Group Limited, into one of Australia’s largest, Frank practiced law in Sydney without much success in the late 1960s. Stripped of his inflated credentials, Frank Nugan was known to be an abrasive alcoholic, an incompetent manager, a mediocre lawyer, and a “pathological liar”.

The other founding partner, Michael Jon Hand, was born in New York in 1941, son of a senior state civil servant, and raised in the Bronx. In 1963 he finished a year’s vocational course in forestry at Syracuse University, graduating thirty-eighth among forty-nine students, and joined the U.S. Army’s Special Forces, the Green Berets. After training at Fort Bragg, he was sent to Vietnam where he won the army’s second highest decoration, the Distinguished Service Cross, for gallantry in fighting northwest of Saigon. Sometime in 1965-1966 Hand joined the CIA for two years as a contract operative fighting with Hmong guerrillas in the mountains of northern Laos. While serving with the CIA, Hand met Theodore Shackley, the agency’s Vientaine station chief in 1966-1968, and befriended a crack Air America pilot, Kermit “Buddy” King, who often flew him to remote tribal outposts. The various official reports do not mention whether Hand also met Shackley’s friend and deputy CIA station chief Thomas Clines, later a close associate of both Hand and his partner Bernie Houghton. Although Hand’s Hmong allies grew opium and shipped it to market on Air America, it is not known whether it was here that Hand acquired the expertise in narcotics that he later applied to building the bank.

Sometime in 1967 Hand finished his CIA contract and moved to Sydney, where he met American expatriate Bernie Houghton, who was then running the Bourbon and Beefsteak restaurant in the city’s Kings Cross vice district. Through Houghton and other contacts, Hand soon became involved in selling Australian real estate to Americans serving in Southeast Asia. In early 1968 the pilot Buddy King joined Hand in Australia and eventually settled with his Thai housekeeper several hours up the coast from Sydney, where their land sales were located, often flying Hand up to the property in a private aircraft for weekends. As an indication of their CIA contacts, in September 1969 Hand formed Australasian and Pacific Holdings Ltd., a real estate company whose seventy-one shareholders included nineteen people then employed by the CIA’s contract airlines in Indochina, Air America and Continental Air Services. Sometime in the late 1960s Hand met Frank Nugan and the two are believed to have shared an apartment before they both married. Crude in manner, violent in speech, and poorly educated, Hand had no banking experience and would bring little more than his cunning and covert contacts to the building of Nugan Hand Bank.

The key figure in much of the bank’s history, Maurice Bernard Houghton, is a mysterious Texan who arrived in Sydney from Southeast Asia in 1967 with an impressive list of references from senior U.S. military officers. Born in Texas in 1920, Houghton finished a semester at Southern Methodist University; served in the military during World War II; and knocked bout the country for twenty years in various jobs with no particular direction. In 1964 Houghton moved to Southeast Asia, where he remained for the next three years during the escalation of the Viet Nam war, engaged in activities that remain unclear. Australia’s Joint Task Force into the bank’s affairs reported that Houghton was “part of the intelligence community” in Southeast Asia before coming to Australia. Wall Street Journal reporter Jonathan Kwitny interviewed former U.S. intelligence officers who claimed, on the record, that Houghton was a wheeler-dealer in Southeast Asia who traded in slot machines, opium—anything.

Soon after arriving in Sydney, Houghton formed a business association with a prominent Hungarian emigre, Sir Paul Strasser, owner of one of Sydney’s leading property companies. With support from Strasser and his associates, Houghton opened the Bourbon and Beefsteak restaurant in October, 1967, just weeks before the first American soldiers began arriving on R&R leave from Vietnam. Among Houghton’s private guests at the club were the CIA’s Australian station chief from 1973 to 1975, John D. Walker; the state’s Premier Sir Robert Askin, a corrupt politician notorious for his contacts with criminal syndicates; and Abraham Saffron, Sydney’s leading gangster and vice lord of Kings Cross. Unlike his future partners, Houghton maintained excellent contacts with the most senior U.S. military and intelligence personnel in the Asia-Pacific region. His intelligence contacts were such that when here turned to Australia from a business trip without a visa in 1972, he rang the state director for the clandestine Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO). The director, Leon Carter, vouched for Houghton and the American received an immediate visa. In dealing with his male friends, Houghton seems to have been a man of strong loyalties and antipathies. “I had a personality problem with Nugan”, Houghton later told the Australian Joint Task Force. “He was harsh, abrasive, arrogant and inconsiderate.” By contrast, Houghton remained very close to Michael Hand, who seemed to regard the older man as a “father figure”. Hand would eventually tire of Frank Nugan’s alcoholism and costly flamboyance, but he remained close to Bernie Houghton until the end.

In 1973, Nugan Hand Limited was born, as it would die, through a gross financial fraud. With only $80 in the company’s bank account and just $5 in paid-up capital, Frank Nugan wrote hs own company a personal check for $980,000 to purchase 490,000 shares of its stock. He then covered his massive overdraft by writing himself a company check for the same amount. Through this elementary accounting fraud, Nugan could claim that the company’s paid-up capital was a million dollars. The bank’s start also coincided with the first of many allegations of drug dealing against Michael hand. Injured in an accident, Buddy King’s Thai house-keeper met a Sydney lawyer to sue for compensation. The lawyer was, for reasons never explained, phoned the Australian Bureau of Narcotics to report that King, Air America’s former ace pilot, was flying heroin into Australia for Michael hand. Soon after his housekeeper’s lawyer made these allegations, King fell to his death from the tenth floor of a Sydney apartment building.

Over the next four years, the bank grew at a remarkable rate by providing a bridge between larger, legitimate banks and a shadow universe of organized crime, illegal money laundering, and intelligence operations. Even at its peak in 1979 with dozens of employees and a global network of offices, the bank never really made a proper profit. Most employees were not clerks or investment counselors, but salespeople who scrambled desperately to keep new deposits coming in the front door faster than the bank’s officers could take them out the back—through lavish expenses, high salaries, and simply fraud. Nugan Hand was a carnival shell game, courting depositors for cash and moving money from branch to branch to conceal one fundamental fact—the bank simply had no assets behind it.

Like many corporate confidence men, Frank Nugan and Michael Hand were obsessed with creating the illusion of propriety and prosperity. Without any capital or customers, Frank Nugan’s first act in opening the company was to lease expensive, well-appointed offices at 55 Macquarie Street, a prestigious address in the heart of the Sydney business district. Nugan hired a reputable money market manager who found that he could get an hour or two of credit every day from personal contacts in the business, just long enough to buy and sell. Although the trading incurred a real loss of $18, 373, the total volume of transactions reached $2.4 million dollars, giving the new company the aura of doing big business. As the bank grew, so did the scale of its illusions. The bank issued glossy annual reports claiming, in 1976 for example, $22 million in “total assets”, $26 million in “gross proceeds from sales of securities”, and approval of its bookkeeping by reputable auditors. A lavish promotional brochure described the bank as part of the Nugan Hand Group, “with assets exceeding US $20,000,000 and a turnover exceeding US $1,000,000,000 per annum.” Assuring potential clients “absolute security, anonymity and confidentiality”, the brochure promised customers “the utmost in personal service and attentive specialist assistance.” With what now seems wry irony, the bank offered, as a special service for valued customers, child welfare accounts that would “give faithful and attentive care and supervision to all aspects of education, health, welfare and advancement in life off the children of the beneficiary.” All of these claims, financial and moral, were knowing lies.

While Frank Nugan concentrated on courting business clients in Sydney, other associates, Hand included, took the bank abroad. The group’s first breakthrough to something approaching profit came in 1974-1975 when it opened a legal Hong Kong branch. By offering Sydney depositors a money-laundering facility for illegal transfers of Australian money to Hong Kong and reciprocally allowing Hong Kong clients a higher rate of interest for funds deposited ni Sydney, the bank began to move large funds for the first time.

As these global activities grew over the next six years, Nugan Hand Limited gradually divided, formally and informally, into two almost separate companies: the Sydney-based Nugan Hand Limited under Frank Nugan’s control and the international branches of Nugan Hand Bank, later registered as a Cayman Islands corporation, managed largely by Michael hand. As Hand grew tired of Frank Nugan’s incessant drinking and mounting legal problems, the ex-Green Beret pulled away from his Australian partner and drew Bernie Houghton into the international side fo the business. While Frank Nugan’s Sydney office concentrated on tax fraud and money laundering, the Hand-Houghton partnership led the bank’s international division into new fields—drug finance, arms trading, and support work for CIA covert operations.

During the bank’s early days in Sydney, Michael Hand had told his junior colleagues that “it was his ambition that Nugan Hand become banker for the CIA. In southern Africa during the mid-1970s, Hand, the former CIA operative, seems to have realized his ambition. At that time southern Africa was in the throes of decolonization, with guerrilla groups fighting the Portugese in Angola and British colonials in Rhodesia. When the Portuguese regime began to crumble in Angola, rival guerrilla groups turned to their great power patrons for more arms, making Angola a cockpit of cold war confrontation. As CIA covert arms shipments began flowing into Angola in 1974-1975, first to Holden Roberto and then to UNITA, Michael Hand left Sydney in January 1975 for southern Africa, where he remained for more than a year, trading in arms and munitions. During his fifteen months in Africa, Hand telexed and telephoned the bank’s Sydney headquarters repeatedly, speaking with Frank Nugan and employee, Wilhemus Hans, about shipments of pistols, helicopters, and munitions. After Nugan’s death, investigators found what appeared to be phone notes in his handwriting from this period, one of which read:

Military weapons Rhodesia

Pay in Gold

Recoilless Rifles

Morters 60/80 ml

M79 Granade launchers

Quad .50 Caliber machine guns

Although it has never been clearly established what, if any, arms were actually shipped from Australia, there is no doubt about the sincerity of Michael Hand’s intentions. In Pretoria, South Africa, Hand incorporated a trading company, Murdoch Lewis Proprietary Ltd., to take delivery of the arms shipments. At ione point Hand summoned his Sydney employee Wilhemus Hans to Africa and met him in Rhodesia for discussions about formation of a helicopter squadron for the white settlers. Hand also made frequent phone calls to another bank employee, Frank Ward, later charged with arms dealing by Australian authorities in court proceedings that remained classified. While Hand waited in southern Africa to take delivery of arms, his close friend Bernie Houghton flew to Washington DC, with two Nugan Hand employees to arrange shipments. Significantly, Houghton made direct contact with CIA agent Edwin Wilson, then working for Task Force 157, a covert action arm of the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI). With vast profits from his contract covert operations work, Wilson had purchased Mt. Airy Farms, a thousand-acre estate in northern Virginia where he often entertained his close comrades Thomas Clines and Theodore Shackley, Hand’s former CIA superiors back in Laos who were now rising fast in the agency’s Langley headquarters. After fifteen years as a career CIA officer, Wilson had transferred to Task Force 151 in 1973 and was operating from the offices of a cover company, World Marine Inc., at 1425 K Street in Washington. It was there that Wilson would meet Houghton and the two Nugan Hand men to arrange the African arms deal.

Australia’s Joint Task force investigating the bank later learned details of the meetings from Dennis Schlachter, a World Marine employee whose evidence as a protected federal witness would lead to Wilson’s 1982 conviction for illegal arms sales to Libya. Sometime in 1975 or early 1976 Schlachter first learned of the African arms deal when two CIa agents based in Indonesia, James Hawes and Robert Moore, called on Wilson at World Marine in Washington to discuss “an African arms deal” that, in these agents’ words, “had to be put together”. Sometime later, Houghton arrived from Sydney and came into World Marine’s offices with the two Nugan Hand men to order the arms. Schlachter recalls chauffeuring Wilson and Hawes out to the agency’s headquarters in Langley while the two discussed using Nugan Hand Bank to finance the shipments. Under the “cover of Task Force 157,” ammunition, 3,000 weapons including machine guns, M-1s, carbines and others”. With an end-user’s certificate showing World Marine as the purchaser and an Australian company as the buyer, the arms left the United States from Boston for southern Africa in three separate shipments.

The Australian Joint Task Force found that Ed Wilson and Bernie Houghton were also involved in the ONI operation to transfer a highly classified spy ship to the Shah of Iran. Soon after joining Task Force 157 in 1973, Wilson had earned a $500,000 fee by delivering an earlier spy ship to Iran under the cover of World Marine. According to the witness Schlachter, in 1975 the U.S. Navy assigned Wilson to deliver another high-technology spy ship to Iran. Schlacter recalls that Houghton “was involved” in this deal, working with “funds…and…payouts”. Significantly, Australian immigration records show that Houghton flew to Iran in March 1975 in the company of a U.S. Army Colonel. Working through Task Force 157, Wilson purchased the ship and ordered it to sail from England around Africa to Iran. When some “mix-up” developed, Schlachter recalls that “Wilson flew to Iran to correct it.” Australian immigration records show that in January 1976 Wilson flew into Sydney and stayed in Australia for three days before flying on to Iran.”

After fourteen months in Africa, Michael Hand returned to the bank’s Sydney headquarters in March 1976 and dedicated his trade skills to a new constituency—Australia’s leading international heroin smugglers.After nearly fifty years without a serious narcotics problem, Australia showed signs of spreading addiction in the late 1970s as Sydney’s criminal syndicates began organizing regular heroin shipments from Southeast Asia. In a March, 1977 report, for example, Sydney’s Crime Intelligence Unit monitored a series of meetings between the city’s leading illegal bookmaker, George Freeman, and California crime figure Danny Stein: “Information was received that Stein was here for the purpose of organizing a network for the reception of heroin into this country from the Golden Triangle and for subsequent distribution on thelocal market and in the United States.”

Would-be Sydney heroin smugglers faced Australia’s stringent currency control laws that made it difficult to export the hard cash for heroin buys in Bangkok. After two years of active money laundering through Hong Kong, Nugan Hand was becoming known in the underworld as a reliable money mover. Sometime in early 1976 George “the Duke” Countis, an American crime figure who “owned” a gaming table in an illegal Sydney casino, brought Murray Riley to the headquarters of Nugan Hand Limited. A former Sydney constable, Riley had quit the police to become a “patron” in the criminal underworld and a close associate of leading criminals like George Freeman. Just back from Africa, Hand quickly developed what the Australian police Joint Task Force called “a close business and social relationship with Riley”.

Starting in April 1976, only four weeks after his arrival from Africa, Hand made five cash transfers to Hong Kong for Murray Riley totaling $295,000. After each transfer, one of Riley’s underlings would call at Nugan Hand’s Hong Kong office to pick up the money, later using the cash to take delivery of a heroin shipment. Through this procedure, Nugan Hand handled $4.3 million ni identifiable drug money for twenty-six known dealers between 1976 and 1980. Studying Hand’s memorandum to his Hong Kong office about a $60,000 cash transfer for Riley’s October shipment, the Task Force concluded “that Hand was aware that Riley was involved in significant illegal activity”. As an indication of their closeness, in late 1986, acting on Riley’s advice, Hand opened bank branches in Thailand, in the words of his Chiangmai branch manager, “to attract drug money”. Two years later, when a yacht was seized south of Sydney with 4.3 tons of high-grade cannabis and Riley was charged, Michael Hand ordered the bank’s Hong Kong office to destroy all incriminating records of Riley’s money transfers. Reviewing this period in the bank’s history, Australia’s Joint Task Force concluded: “Throughout 1976 Hand was knowingly involved in drug activity with the ‘Riley’ group in that he permitted and even encouraged the use of Nugan Hand facilities for the movement of ‘drug’ money.

In October 1976 Hand decided to leave the Sydney office to Frank Nugan and move to Hong Kong, where he could build the bank’s international division. Over the next two years, Hand worked with some success to develop a global network of twelve branches that covered Asia, Africa, and the Americas. After months of failure, Hand’s break had come in June 1976 when the Cayman Islands, a British colonial tax haven in the Caribbean, decided to charter the Nugan Hand Bank, finally giving the company the legal right to advertise itself as a “merchant bank”.

As the bank expanded dramatically in 1977-1978, Michael Hand recruited some of the most famous names in U.S. national security circles to join the bank as employees or associates. The key figure in making these contacts for Hand was Bernie Houghton, who had taken a more active role in the bank in 1976 after his bar business went bankrupt with debts of nearly a million dollars. In early 1977 Houghton recruited an old friend, Admiral Earl Yates, retired chief strategist for the U.S. Pacific Command, to serve as president of the Nugan Hand Bank. Through the admiral’s influence, a succession of such senior appointments followed:

General Leroy J. Manor, former Pentagon counterinsurgency specialist and chief of staff of the U.S. Pacific Command, manager of the bank’s Manila branch;

General Edwin F. Black, former OSS officer and commander of U.S. forces in Thailand, president of Nugan Hand, Inc., of Hawaii;

Dr. Guy Pauker, Asia expert for the Rand Corporation, a research firm under contract to the U.S. Defense Department, bank consultant.

Dale Holmgren, former chairman of the CIA’s Civil Air Transport, [a CIA proprietary airline similar to Air America], manager of the bank’s Taiwan branch;

William Colby, retired CIA director, Nugan Hand’s legal counsel.

The pattern of events surrounding this expansion indicates that Michael Hand may have realized his dream of becoming the “CIA’s banker”. Both Sydney police and Wall Street Journal reporter Jonathan Kwitny came away from their long investigations of Nugan Hand convinced that there may well have been some connection between the bank’s sudden rise and the antecedent demise of a CIA proprietary, the Castle Bank and Trust of Nassau. After retiring from the CIA, Paul Helliwell, founder of such agency “proprietaries” as SEA Supply Inc. of Bangkok and Air America, opened a law office in Miami and formed Castle Bank offshore in nearby Nassau to cover the agency’s covert money movements. In 1973 agents of the Internal Revenue Service were able to photograph the Castle Bank’s customer list while a bank executive dined in a posh Key Biscayne restaurant with a woman described as an IRS “informant”. Reviewing the purloined documents, IRS investigators found that the 308 Castle Bank customers on the list had moved $250 million to foreign numbered accounts. Depositors included Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner, Penthouse magazine publisher Robert Guccione, and some major organized crime figures—Morris Dalitz, Morris Kleinman, and Samuel A. Tucker. Eleated by the find, investigators formed Project Haven to make “the single biggest tax-evasion strike in IRS history.” Suddenly, the IRS announced that it was dropping the investigation because of “legal problems”. According to a later investigation by the Wall Street Journal, “pressure from the Central Intelligence Agency … caused the Justice Department to drop what could have been the biggest tax evasion case of all time.” The CIA invoked “national security” since it was using the Castle Bank “for the funding of clandestine operations against Cuba and other intelligence operations directed at countries in Latin America and the Far East.” By the time Helliwell died from emphysema on Christmas Eve, 1976, Castle Bank had been liquidated.

Simultaneous with the closure of Castle Bank’s Nassau office, Nugan Hand Bank launched its formal “banking” operations in the nearby Cayman Islands. The opening of Caribbean branches, a new area for Nugan Hand, and recruitment of retired CIA officers gave it a corporate structure similar to the collapsed Castle Bank. Indeed, a former CIA agent named Kevin Mulcahy, a key witness in the Edwin Wilson case, gave details to the National Times of Sydney “about the Agency’s use of Nugan Hand for shifting money for various covert operations around the globe”.

Working through Houghton, moreover, the Nugan Hand Bank deepened its contacts with the network of ex-CIA officials surrounding Edwin Wilson. After helping Hand informally with the bank’s operations for the previous five years, Houghton finally joined Nugan Hand’s staff in late 1978 and opened a branch in Saudi Arabia to collect deposits from American contract employees. Under Houghton’s management, the Saudi branch ran the bank’s biggest — and simplest — fraud. With introductions from Beck Arabia of Dallas, a leading engineering firm with major Middle East contracts, Houghton flew into Saudi Arabia in January 1979 and rented a villa at Al-Khobar to serve as both office and residence for the bank. Over the next twelve months, Houghton and his aides circulated through the U.S. construction camps along the Persian Gulf, issuing bank receipts for cash deposits from American contract workers. Paid in cash and unable to make deposits in Saudi Arabia’s backward banking system, American expatriate workers needed the deposit-taking service that Nugan Hand pretended to provide. Houghton then bought bundles of Thomas Cook traveler’s checks and sent them off in commercial courier parcels to Michael Hand’s new office in Singapore. Through this simple system, Houghton and Hand collected collected at least $5 million from their fellow Americans—all of which simply disappeared when the bank collapsed a year later.

Houghton’s presence in Arabia brought Nugan Hand Bank into closer contact with Wilson’s network of former CIA officials, now moving its base of operations to nearby Libya. When Houghton opened his Saudi office in 1979, Wilson’s network seemed a step away from unprecedented power, and Houghton apparently decided to join their rise. Within months, however, both Wilson’s group and Nugan Hand were plunging precipitously toward a collapse.

After decades inside the CIA, Wilson and his closest associates were finally forced out in the late 1970s, losing the mantle of CIA protection that had long masked their operations. In February 1976, Admiral Bobby Ray Inman, the new head of the Office of Naval Intelligence, ran into Ed Wilson by chance and learned to his surprise that this wheeler-dealer was one of his own operatives in Task Force 157. When Wilson’s contract came up for renewal a few months later, ONI canceled it on Inman’s orders, pushing the ex-CIA man into the private sector. There he prospered. Between June and September 1976 Wilson supplied Libya with thousands of CIA-designed bomb timers and more than 21 tons of Composition C-4, the most powerful nonnuclear explosive in America’s arsenal–thereby providing Colonel Muammar al-Qaddafi with a potent weapon for his terrorist campaign in Europe and the Middle East. Over the next four years, Wilson recruited U.S. Green Berets to train Libyan commandos, delivered weapons for Qaddafi’s terrorists, and even arranged assassinations for the Libyan dictator. One of Wilson’s employees, former CIA officer Kevin Mulcahy, became concerned by these shipments and reported them to the CIA. But Wilson’s old friend Theodore Shackley, now deputy director for Clandestine Services [at CIA], blocked any internal investigation. In April 1977 The Washington Post published an article on Wilson’s activities stating that he “may have had contact with one or more current CIA employees”, and the agency’s new director, Admiral Stansfield Turner, started asking questions. He soon learned about Wilson’s close friendship with his former CIA colleagues Clines and Shackley, then high in the Langley hierarchy. Over the opposition of senior CIA bureaucrats, Turner transferred the two to secondary jobs. A year later Thomas Clines resigned from the CIA after thirty years’ service, borrowed $500,000 from Wilson to set up his own company, and soon won a $71 million contract for arms delivery to Egypt. No longer heir-apparent to the post of CIA director, Theodore Shackley resigned in Septermber 1979 and followed Clines into the consulting business.

(end excerpts from Alfred McCoy’s book, “The Politics of Heroin”)

Notes:

I do have the book by Jonathan Kwitny of the Wall Street Journal, pictured atop this page, but I do not have Sleight Of Hand by Owen.  Therefore I cannot say much about it, other than it is on my “wish list” at Amazon dot com.  Anyone who has read this book is invited to post their take in the comments section below this article. Thank you.

http://www.amazon.com/Sleight-hand-million-Nugan-scandal/dp/0863990231

–

Alfred McCoy’s book, The Politics of Heroin, is at Amazon dot com —  http://www.amazon.com/Politics-Heroin-Complicity-Global-Trade/dp/1556521251/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1446552531&sr=1-2&keywords=Alfred+mccoy+Politics+of+Heroin

However, one should know that not all editions of the book have the chapter on Nugan Hand. My copy of the book is the 2nd edition, and contains the material I typed in above for this article.

The Nugan Hand
and How the CIA Moves Drugs and Money

Further Reading
In Banks We Trust by Penny Lernux published in 1994

Veterans, you swore an Oath...

Oath of Enlistment

I, (NAME), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.

Officers Oath

I, [name], do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.

Your Oath NEVER expires! 
It''s time to keep it!

OATH KEEPERS: 
ORDERS WE WILL NOT OBEY

Click here to read full length version.

1. We will NOT obey orders to disarm the American people.


2. We will NOT obey orders to conduct warrantless searches of the American people
.

3. We will NOT obey orders to detain American citizens as “unlawful enemy combatants” or to subject them to military tribunal.


4. We will NOT obey orders to impose martial law or a “state of emergency” on a state.


5. We will NOT obey orders to invade and subjugate any state that asserts its sovereignty.


6. We will NOT obey any order to blockade American cities, thus turning them into giant concentration camps.

7. We will NOT obey any order to force American citizens into any form of detention camps under any pretext.


8. We will NOT obey orders to assist or support the use of any foreign troops on U.S. soil against the American people to “keep the peace” or to “maintain control."


9. We will NOT obey any orders to confiscate the property of the American people, including food and other essential supplies.


10. We will NOT obey any orders which infringe on the right of the people to free speech, to peaceably assemble, and to petition their government for a redress of grievances.

Click here to read full length version.

---

Site Dedication

This site is dedicated to the memory of 
John William Adams (1925-2006), 
Marine and Oath Keeper extraordinaire.

John Adams, at the age of 16, lied about his age to join the Marines so he could fight against Imperial Japan in the Pacific. His enlistment date was December 10, 1941, just three days after the attack on Pearl Harbor (see below). As a Marine rifleman, he fought the Japanese from island to island, across the pacific, including at Iwo Jima. We may have good men, but we never had better.

Until his death in 2006, he was a dedicated 
patriot who still took his oath to defend the 
Republic deadly serious. May God grant you the courage to do likewise.

---

FOUNDER STEWART RHODES

Stewart is the founder and Director of Oath Keepers. He served as a U.S. Army paratrooper until disabled in a rough terrain parachuting accident during a night jump.

He is a former firearms instructor and former member of Rep. Ron Paul’s DC staff.

Stewart previously wrote the monthly Enemy at the Gates column for S.W.A.T. Magazine

Stewart graduated from Yale Law School in 2004, where his paper “Solving the Puzzle of Enemy Combatant Status” won Yale’s Miller prize for best paper on the Bill of Rights. He assisted teaching U.S. military history at Yale, was a Yale Research Scholar, and is writing a book on the dangers of applying the laws of war to the American people.

---

Board of Directors

Stewart Rhodes, Army Airborne Veteran, Yale Law School Graduate, OK Founder and President

John D. Shirley, Retired Duty Peace Officer - Houston, TX. National Lead Liaison to Peace Officers.

Jay Stang, Veteran US Marine Corps - Texas Chapter President

Jim Ayala, EMT Veteran, Oath Keepers Treasurer, Merchandise

Michele Imburgia, Texas State VP

Sheriff Denny Peyman, Retired Jackson County, KY Sheriff, OK National Peace Officer Liaison

John Kerriman, Current Missouri police academy instructor, police veteran, OK National Peace Officer/LEO Liaison

---

Friends of Oath Keepers

Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association - CSPOA.org

---

SWAT Magazine

---

Randall''s Adventure & Training / ESEE Knives

---

Jews for the Preservation of Firearms ( JPFO )

---

Ventura Munitions

---

Freedom Law School

---

Tenth Amendment Center

---

Gun Owners of America

---

Fully Informed Jury Association ( FIJA )

Air America _One man's story

David Quam

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0jlBB9t3Ao&app=desktop

Published on Dec 31, 2011

Air America_One man's story of his experiences with Air America By Dave Quam

Category Education

Jim Kilcullen Air America

David Quam

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wus8pdFNNI&app=desktop

Published on Aug 7, 2014

Jim Kilcullen's Air America story..

Category Education

Predatory Practices Nugan Hand Trick Bank

Con Front Nugan Hand - Nugan Hand Trick Bank

March 12, 2017 by Dear Toxic System

The Crime Bankers-Frank Nugan and Michael Hand/Fuller

More CIA Treachery: Nugan Hand Bank Ltd
By Elias Alias, 2015

This latest version of the selected excerpts from Alfred McCoy’s masterpiece on the CIA’s dope dealing escapades is more complete than previous postings. I have typed in passages from pages 461-472 in Alfred W. McCoy’s bombshell book, “The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity In The Drug Trade“, (1991; first edition 1972.)

At 4:00 a.m. on January 27, 1980, a state police officer patrolling a country road west of Sydney, Australia, noticed a late-model Mercedes sedan parked by the side of the road and stopped to examine it. Inside the constable found the body of a middle-aged male slumped forward, still holding the rifle he had apparently used […] Searching his wallet, the police found personal identification for one Frank Nugan, a merchant banker of Sydney, and a calling card from one William Colby, a New York lawyer who had recently retired as director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.

The circumstances of Nugan’s [death] and the bank’s spectacular collapse only six months later have inspired hundreds of press probes, three major Australian government investigations, and a lengthy  book by one of America’s best investigative reporters. All have asked the same basic question: What was the relationship between the Nugan Hand Bank and the CIA? Although we have more details about the bank than about any other company with similarly ambiguous CIA connections, the question still defies a concise answer.

[…] Nugan Hand’s twisted history does offer insights into the world of CIA espionage—in particular, that gray area of alumni, allies, assets, and affiliated companies that do so much of the agency’s covert work. In his memoirs and public statements, William Colby has portrayed his CIA colleagues as “honorable men”, patriots who simply would not, could not tolerate any involvement in drugs by either agency personnel or covert assets. Whatever it may or may not have been, the Nugan Hand Bank was certainly two things: (1)an employer of many retired CIA agents and (2) heavily involved in narcotics trafficking.

Unlike most of the agency’s faceless espionage, the carefully documented Nugan Hand case affords a close look at the moral universe of covert operations, particularly the gray sector of CIA proprietaries and affiliates. The Nugan Hand case shows how the CIA’s secret war in Laos, interwoven with the tribal opium trade, produced a covert action cadre with a tolerance for drug dealing.

The Nugan Hand Bank served several constituencies simultaneously, and its various relationships reveal a good deal about the operations of this clientele. Based in Sydney, the bank was a partnership between Australian lawyer Frank Nugan and an ex-Green Beret businessman named Michael Hand. Both worked closely with one of their senior managers, a mysterious American expatriate with impeccable intelligence contacts, Maurice Benard Houghton. Through the three men and their separate, sometimes overlapping networks, the bank cultivated corrupt Australian politicians, Sydney crime syndicate, a fraternity of ex-CIA arms dealers, and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.

In less than a decade after its incorporation in Sydney in 1973, Nugan Hand Limited went through a complete cycle from modest origins to spectacular global expansion to precipitous collapse. During its eight-year life, the bank’s character was shaped by its three principals. [Following is excepted] Francis Nugan was known to be an abrasive alcoholic, an incompetent manager, a mediocre lawyer, and a “pathological liar”. Michael Jon Hand, was born in New York in 1941, had joined the U.S. Army’s Special Forces, the Green Berets. Sometime in 1965-1966 Hand joined the CIA where he met Theodore Shackley and befriended a crack Air America pilot, Kermit “Buddy” King. Hand also met deputy CIA station chief Thomas Clines. In 1967 Hand finished his CIA contract and moved to Sydney, where he met American expatriate Bernie Houghton.

As an indication of their CIA contacts, in September 1969 Hand formed Australasian and Pacific Holdings Ltd., a real estate company whose seventy-one shareholders included nineteen people then employed by the CIA’s contract airlines in Indochina, Air America and Continental Air Services. Sometime in the late 1960s Hand met Frank Nugan and the two are believed to have shared an apartment before they both married. Crude in manner, violent in speech, and poorly educated, Hand had no banking experience and would bring little more than his cunning and covert contacts to the building of Nugan Hand Bank.

The key figure in much of the bank’s history, Maurice Bernard Houghton, is a mysterious Texan who arrived in Sydney from Southeast Asia in 1967 with an impressive list of references from senior U.S. military officers. […] Australia’s Joint Task Force into the bank’s affairs reported that Houghton was “part of the intelligence community” in Southeast Asia before coming to Australia. Wall Street Journal reporter Jonathan Kwitny interviewed former U.S. intelligence officers who claimed, on the record, that Houghton was a wheeler-dealer in Southeast Asia who traded in slot machines, opium—anything.

Soon after arriving in Sydney, Houghton formed a business association with a prominent Hungarianemigre, Sir Paul Strasser, owner of one of Sydney’s leading property companies. With support from Strasser and his associates, Houghton opened the Bourbon and Beefsteak restaurant in October, 1967, just weeks before the first American soldiers began arriving on R&R leave from Vietnam. Among Houghton’s private guests at the club were the CIA’s Australian station chief from 1973 to 1975, John D. Walker; the state’s Premier Sir Robert Askin, a corrupt politician notorious for his contacts with criminal syndicates; and Abraham Saffron, Sydney’s leading gangster and vice lord of Kings Cross.

Unlike his future partners, Houghton maintained excellent contacts with the most senior U.S. military and intelligence personnel in the Asia-Pacific region. His intelligence contacts were such that when he turned to Australia from a business trip without a visa in 1972, he rang the state director for the clandestine Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO). The director, Leon Carter, vouched for Houghton and the American received an immediate visa. In dealing with his male friends, Houghton seems to have been a man of strong loyalties and antipathies. “I had a personality problem with Nugan”, Houghton later told the Australian Joint Task Force. “He was harsh, abrasive, arrogant and inconsiderate.” By contrast, Houghton remained very close to Michael Hand, who seemed to regard the older man as a “father figure”. Hand would eventually tire of Frank Nugan’s alcoholism and costly flamboyance, but he remained close to Bernie Houghton until the end.

In 1973, Nugan Hand Limited was born, as it would die, through a gross financial fraud. With only $80 in the company’s bank account and just $5 in paid-up capital, Frank Nugan wrote his own company a personal check for $980,000 to purchase 490,000 shares of its stock. He then covered his massive overdraft by writing himself a company check for the same amount. Through this elementary accounting fraud, Nugan could claim that the company’s paid-up capital was a million dollars.

The bank’s start also coincided with the first of many allegations of drug dealing against Michael hand. Injured in an accident, Buddy King’s Thai house-keeper met a Sydney lawyer to sue for compensation. The lawyer was, for reasons never explained, phoned the Australian Bureau of Narcotics to report that King, Air America’s former ace pilot, was flying heroin into Australia for Michael hand. Soon after his housekeeper’s lawyer made these allegations, King fell to his death from the tenth floor of a Sydney apartment building.

Over the next four years, the bank grew at a remarkable rate by providing a bridge between larger, legitimate banks and a shadow universe of organized crime, illegal money laundering, and intelligence operations. Even at its peak in 1979 with dozens of employees and a global network of offices, the bank never really made a proper profit. Most employees were not clerks or investment counselors, but salespeople who scrambled desperately to keep new deposits coming in the front door faster than the bank’s officers could take them out the back—through lavish expenses, high salaries, and simply fraud. Nugan Hand was a carnival shell game, courting depositors for cash and moving money from branch to branch to conceal one fundamental fact—the bank simply had no assets behind it.

Like many corporate confidence men, Frank Nugan and Michael Hand were obsessed with creating the illusion of propriety and prosperity. Without any capital or customers, Frank Nugan’s first act in opening the company was to lease expensive, well-appointed offices at 55 Macquarie Street, a prestigious address in the heart of the Sydney business district. Nugan hired a reputable money market manager who found that he could get an hour or two of creditevery day from personal contacts in the business, just long enough to buy and sell. Although the trading incurred a real loss of $18, 373, the total volume of transactions reached $2.4 million dollars, giving the new company the aura of doing big business.

As the bank grew, so did the scale of its illusions. The bank issued glossy annual reports claiming, in 1976 for example, $22 million in “total assets”, $26 million in “gross proceeds from sales of securities”, and approval of its bookkeeping by reputable auditors. A lavish promotional brochure described the bank as part of the Nugan Hand Group, “with assets exceeding US $20,000,000 and a turnover exceeding US $1,000,000,000 per annum.” Assuring potential clients “absolute security, anonymity and confidentiality”, the brochure promised customers “the utmost in personal service and attentive specialist assistance.” […] All of these claims, financial and moral, were knowing lies.

While Frank Nugan concentrated on courting business clients in Sydney, other associates, Hand included, took the bank abroad. The group’s first breakthrough to something approaching profit came in 1974-1975 when it opened a legal Hong Kong branch. By offering Sydney depositors a money-laundering facility for illegal transfers of Australian money to Hong Kong and reciprocally allowing Hong Kong clients a higher rate of interest for funds deposited in Sydney, the bank began to move large funds for the first time.

As these global activities grew over the next six years, Nugan Hand Limited gradually divided, formally and informally, into two almost separate companies: the Sydney-based Nugan Hand Limited under Frank Nugan’s control and the international branches of Nugan Hand Bank, later registered as a Cayman Islands corporation, managed largely by Michael hand. As Hand grew tired of Frank Nugan’s incessant drinking and mounting legal problems, the ex-Green Beret pulled away from his Australian partner and drew Bernie Houghton into the international side of the business. While Frank Nugan’s Sydney office concentrated on tax fraud and money laundering, the Hand-Houghton partnership led the bank’s international division into new fields—drug finance, arms trading, and support work for CIA covert operations.

During the bank’s early days in Sydney, Michael Hand had told his junior colleagues that “it was his ambition that Nugan Hand become banker for the CIA. In southern Africa during the mid-1970s, Hand, the former CIA operative, seems to have realized his ambition. At that time southern Africa was in the throes of decolonization, with guerrilla groups fighting the Portugese in Angola and British colonials in Rhodesia. When the Portuguese regime began to crumble in Angola, rival guerrilla groups turned to their great power patrons for more arms, making Angola a cockpit of cold war confrontation.

As CIA covert arms shipments began flowing into Angola in 1974-1975, first to Holden Roberto and then to UNITA, Michael Hand left Sydney in January 1975 for southern Africa, where he remained for more than a year, trading in arms and munitions. During his fifteen months in Africa, Hand telexed and telephoned the bank’s Sydney headquarters repeatedly, speaking with Frank Nugan and employee, Wilhemus Hans, about shipments of pistols, helicopters, and munitions. After Nugan’s death, investigators found what appeared to be phone notes in his handwriting from this period, one of which read:

Military weapons Rhodesia
Pay in Gold
Recoilless Rifles
Morters 60/80 ml
M79 Granade launchers
Quad .50 Caliber machine guns

[…] In Pretoria, South Africa, Hand incorporated a trading company, Murdoch Lewis Proprietary Ltd., to take delivery of the arms shipments. At one point Hand summoned his Sydney employee Wilhemus Hans to Africa for discussions about formation of a helicopter squadron for the white [illegal occupiers]. Hand also made frequent phone calls to another bank employee, Frank Ward, later charged with arms dealing by Australian authorities in court proceedings that remained classified.

While Hand waited in southern Africa to take delivery of arms, his close friend Bernie Houghton flew to Washington DC, with two Nugan Hand employees to arrange shipments. Significantly, Houghton made direct contact with CIA agent Edwin Wilson, then working for Task Force 157, a covert action arm of the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI). With vast profits from his contract covert operations work, Wilson had purchased Mt. Airy Farms, a thousand-acre estate in northern Virginia where he often entertained his close comrades Thomas Clines and Theodore Shackley, Hand’s former CIA superiors back in Laos who were now rising fast in the agency’s Langley headquarters. After fifteen years as a career CIA officer, Wilson had transferred to Task Force 151 in 1973 and was operating from the offices of a cover company, World Marine Inc., at 1425 K Street in Washington. It was there that Wilson would meet Houghton and the two Nugan Hand men to arrange the African arms deal.

Australia’s Joint Task force investigating the bank later learned details of the meetings from Dennis Schlachter, a World Marine employee whose evidence as a protected federal witness would lead to Wilson’s 1982 conviction for illegal arms sales to Libya. Sometime in 1975 or early 1976 Schlachter first learned of the African arms deal when two CIA agents based in Indonesia, James Hawes and Robert Moore, called on Wilson at World Marine in Washington to discuss “an African arms deal” that, in these agents’ words, “had to be put together”. Sometime later, Houghton arrived from Sydney and came into World Marine’s offices with the two Nugan Hand men to order the arms.

Schlachter recalls chauffeuring Wilson and Hawes out to the agency’s headquarters in Langley while the two discussed using Nugan Hand Bank to finance the shipments. Under the “cover of Task Force 157,” ammunition, 3,000 weapons including machine guns, M-1s, carbines and others”. With an end-user’s certificate showing World Marine as the purchaser and an Australian company as the buyer, the arms left the United States from Boston for southern Africa in three separate shipments.

The Australian Joint Task Force found that Ed Wilson and Bernie Houghton were also involved in the ONI operation to transfer a highly classified spy ship to the Shah of Iran. Soon after joining Task Force 157 in 1973, Wilson had earned a $500,000 fee by delivering an earlier spy ship to Iran under the cover of World Marine. According to the witness Schlachter, in 1975 the U.S. Navy assigned Wilson to deliver another high-technology spy ship to Iran. Schlacter recalls that Houghton “was involved” in this deal, working with “funds…and…payouts”.

Significantly, Australian immigration records show that Houghton flew to Iran in March 1975 in the company of a U.S. Army Colonel. Working through Task Force 157, Wilson purchased the ship and ordered it to sail from England around Africa to Iran. When some “mix-up” developed, Schlachter recalls that “Wilson flew to Iran to correct it.” Australian immigration records show that in January 1976 Wilson flew into Sydney and stayed in Australia for three days before flying on to Iran.”

After fourteen months in Africa, Michael Hand returned to the bank’s Sydney headquarters in March 1976 and dedicated his trade skills to a new constituency—Australia’s leading international heroin smugglers. After nearly fifty years without a serious narcotics problem, Australia showed signs of spreading addiction in the late 1970s as Sydney’s criminal syndicates began organizing regular heroin shipments from Southeast Asia. In a March, 1977 report, for example, Sydney’s Crime Intelligence Unit monitored a series of meetings between the city’s leading illegal bookmaker, George Freeman, and California crime figure Danny Stein:

“Information was received that Stein was here for the purpose of organizing a network for the reception of heroin into this country from the Golden Triangle and for subsequent distribution on thelocal market and in the United States.”

Would-be Sydney heroin smugglers faced Australia’s stringent currency control laws that made it difficult to export the hard cash for heroin buys in Bangkok. After two years of active money laundering through Hong Kong, Nugan Hand was becoming known in the underworld as a reliable money mover. Sometime in early 1976 George “the Duke” Countis, an American crime figure who “owned” a gaming table in an illegal Sydney casino, brought Murray Riley to the headquarters of Nugan Hand Limited. A former Sydney constable, Riley had quit the police to become a “patron” in the criminal underworld and a close associate of leading criminals like George Freeman. Just back from Africa, Hand quickly developed what the Australian police Joint Task Force called “a close business and social relationship with Riley”.

Starting in April 1976, only four weeks after his arrival from Africa, Hand made five cash transfers to Hong Kong for Murray Riley totaling $295,000. After each transfer, one of Riley’s underlings would call at Nugan Hand’s Hong Kong office to pick up the money, later using the cash to take delivery of a heroin shipment. Through this procedure, Nugan Hand handled $4.3 million in identifiable drug money for twenty-six known dealers between 1976 and 1980. Studying Hand’s memorandum to his Hong Kong office about a $60,000 cash transfer for Riley’s October shipment, the Task Force concluded “that Hand was aware that Riley was involved in significant illegal activity”.

As an indication of their closeness, in late 1986, acting on Riley’s advice, Hand opened bank branches in Thailand, in the words of his Chiangmai branch manager, “to attract drug money”. Two years later, when a yacht was seized south of Sydney with 4.3 tons of high-grade cannabis and Riley was charged, Michael Hand ordered the bank’s Hong Kong office to destroy all incriminating records of Riley’s money transfers. Reviewing this period in the bank’s history, Australia’s Joint Task Force concluded:

“Throughout 1976 Hand was knowingly involved in drug activity with the ‘Riley’ group in that he permitted and even encouraged the use of Nugan Hand facilities for the movement of ‘drug’ money.

In October 1976 Hand decided to leave the Sydney office to Frank Nugan and move to Hong Kong, where he could build the bank’s international division. Over the next two years, Hand worked with some success to develop a global network of twelve branches that covered Asia, Africa, and the Americas. After months of failure, Hand’s break had come in June 1976 when the Cayman Islands, a British colonial tax haven in the Caribbean, decided to charter the Nugan Hand Bank, finally giving the company the legal right to advertise itself as a “merchant bank”.

As the bank expanded dramatically in 1977-1978, Michael Hand recruited some of the most famous names in U.S. national security circles to join the bank as employees or associates. The key figure in making these contacts for Hand was Bernie Houghton, who had taken a more active role in the bank in 1976 after his bar business went bankrupt with debts of nearly a million dollars. In early 1977 Houghton recruited an old friend, Admiral Earl Yates, retired chief strategist for the U.S. Pacific Command, to serve as president of the Nugan Hand Bank. Through the admiral’s influence, a succession of such senior appointments followed:

– General Leroy J. Manor, former Pentagon counterinsurgency specialist and chief of staff of the U.S. Pacific Command, manager of the bank’s Manila branch;
– General Edwin F. Black, former OSS officer and commander of U.S. forces in Thailand, president of Nugan Hand, Inc., of Hawaii;
– Dr. Guy Pauker, Asia expert for the Rand Corporation, a research firm under contract to the U.S. Defense Department, bank consultant.
– Dale Holmgren, former chairman of the CIA’s Civil Air Transport, [a CIA proprietary airline similar to Air America], manager of the bank’s Taiwan branch;
– William Colby, retired CIA director, Nugan Hand’s legal counsel.

The pattern of events surrounding this expansion indicates that Michael Hand may have realized his dream of becoming the “CIA’s banker”. Both Sydney police and Wall Street Journal reporter Jonathan Kwitny came away from their long investigations of

The Crimes Of Patriots _ A True Tale of Dope, Dirty Money, and the CIA by Jonathan Kwitny

Nugan Hand convinced that there may well have been some connection between the bank’s sudden rise and the antecedent demise of a CIA proprietary, the Castle Bank and Trust of Nassau.

After retiring from the CIA, Paul Helliwell, founder of such agency “proprietaries” as SEA Supply Inc. of Bangkok and Air America, opened a law office in Miami and formed Castle Bank offshore in nearby Nassau to cover the agency’s covert money movements. In 1973 agents of the Internal Revenue Service were able to photograph the Castle Bank’s customer list while a bank executive dined in a posh Key Biscayne restaurant with a woman described as an IRS “informant”. Reviewing the purloined documents, IRS investigators found that the 308 Castle Bank customers on the list had moved $250 million to foreign numbered accounts. Depositors included Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner, Penthouse magazine publisher Robert Guccione, and some major organized crime figures—Morris Dalitz, Morris Kleinman, and Samuel A. Tucker.Elated by the find, investigators formed Project Haven to make “the single biggest tax-evasion strike in IRS history.”

Suddenly, the IRS announced that it was dropping the investigation because of “legal problems”. According to a later investigation by the Wall Street Journal, “pressure from the Central Intelligence Agency … caused the Justice Department to drop what could have been the biggest tax evasion case of all time.” The CIA invoked “national security” since it was using the Castle Bank “for the funding of clandestine operations against Cuba and other intelligence operations directed at countries in Latin America and the Far East.” By the time Helliwell died from emphysema on Christmas Eve, 1976, Castle Bank had been liquidated.

Simultaneous with the closure of Castle Bank’s Nassau office, Nugan Hand Bank launched its formal “banking” operations in the nearby Cayman Islands. The opening of Caribbean branches, a new area for Nugan Hand, and recruitment of retired CIA officers gave it a corporate structure similar to the collapsed Castle Bank. Indeed, a former CIA agent named Kevin Mulcahy, a key witness in the Edwin Wilson case, gave details to the National Times of Sydney “about the Agency’s use of Nugan Hand for shifting money for various covert operations around the globe”.

—

Working through Houghton, moreover, the Nugan Hand Bank deepened its contacts with the network of ex-CIA officials surrounding Edwin Wilson. After helping Hand informally with the bank’s operations for the previous five years, Houghton finally joined Nugan Hand’s staff in late 1978 and opened a branch in Saudi Arabia to collect deposits from American contract employees. Under Houghton’s management, the Saudi branch ran the bank’s biggest — and simplest — fraud. With introductions from Beck Arabia of Dallas, a leading engineering firm with major Middle East contracts, Houghton flew into Saudi Arabia in January 1979 and rented a villa at Al-Khobar to serve as both office and residence for the bank. Over the next twelve months, Houghton and his aides circulated through the U.S. construction camps along the Persian Gulf, issuing bank receipts for cash deposits from American contract workers. Paid in cash and unable to make deposits in Saudi Arabia’s backward banking system, American expatriate workers needed the deposit-taking service that Nugan Hand pretended to provide. Houghton then bought bundles of Thomas Cook traveler’s checks and sent them off in commercial courier parcels to Michael Hand’s new office in Singapore. Through this simple system, Houghton and Hand collected collected at least $5 million from their fellow Americans—all of which simply disappeared when the bank collapsed a year later.

Houghton’s presence in Arabia brought Nugan Hand Bank into closer contact with Wilson’s network of former CIA officials, now moving its base of operations to nearby Libya. When Houghton opened his Saudi office in 1979, Wilson’s network seemed a step away from unprecedented power, and Houghton apparently decided to join their rise. Within months, however, both Wilson’s group and Nugan Hand were plunging precipitously toward a collapse.

After decades inside the CIA, Wilson and his closest associates were finally forced out in the late 1970s, losing the mantle of CIA protection that had long masked their operations. In February 1976, Admiral Bobby Ray Inman, the new head of the Office of Naval Intelligence, ran into Ed Wilson by chance and learned to his surprise that this wheeler-dealer was one of his own operatives in Task Force 157. When Wilson’s contract came up for renewal a few months later, ONI canceled it on Inman’s orders, pushing the ex-CIA man into the private sector. There he prospered. Between June and September 1976 Wilson supplied Libya with thousands of CIA-designed bomb timers and more than 21 tons of Composition C-4, the most powerful nonnuclear explosive in America’s arsenal–thereby providing Colonel Muammar al-Qaddafi with a potent weapon for his terrorist campaign in Europe and the Middle East. Over the next four years, Wilson recruited U.S. Green Berets to train Libyan commandos, delivered weapons for Qaddafi’s terrorists, and even arranged assassinations for the Libyan dictator. One of Wilson’s employees, former CIA officer Kevin Mulcahy, became concerned by these shipments and reported them to the CIA. But Wilson’s old friend Theodore Shackley, now deputy director for Clandestine Services [at CIA], blocked any internal investigation. In April 1977 The Washington Post published an article on Wilson’s activities stating that he “may have had contact with one or more current CIA employees”, and the agency’s new director, Admiral Stansfield Turner, started asking questions. He soon learned about Wilson’s close friendship with his former CIA colleagues Clines and Shackley, then high in the Langley hierarchy. Over the opposition of senior CIA bureaucrats, Turner transferred the two to secondary jobs. A year later Thomas Clines resigned from the CIA after thirty years’ service, borrowed $500,000 from Wilson to set up his own company, and soon won a $71 million contract for arms delivery to Egypt. No longer heir-apparent to the post of CIA director, Theodore Shackley resigned in Septermber 1979 and followed Clines into the consulting business.

(end excerpts from Alfred McCoy’s book, “The Politics of Heroin”)

Jonathan Kwitny was sent by the Wall Street Journal to Australia to cover a breaking story about one of the CIA;s drug-smuggling, money-laundering, and arms dealing proprietaries, a bank named Nugan Hand, Ltd. Mr. Kwitny gave us the “story behind the story” regarding the Iran-Contra scandal which disgraced the Ronald Reagan White House. His coverage of the Australian government’s investigation of the Nugan Hand Bank, Ltd, led to the free wheeling dope-dealing escapades of the CIA’s drug dealing, arms trafficking, and money laundering at a larger CIA proprietary bank named BCCI, which the U.S. Senate investigated.

The Crime of Patriots –

A True Story of Dope,

Dirty Money and the CIA

BY Jonathan Kwitny

https://www.scribd.com/doc/95815512/Kwitny-The-Crimes-of-Patriots-A-True-Tale-of-Dope-Dirty-Money-and-the-CIA-Iran-Contra-Scandal-1987

The Crime of Patriots – A True Story of Dope, Dirty Money and the CIA

BY Jonathan Kwitny

The Crimes of Patriots will reveal how an obscure Australian bank, Nugan Hand Ltd.,came to occupy the central position in a vast network of drug transactions, fraud, secretarms deals, and  covert intelligence operations.

"The Crimes of Patriots is a masterpiece, pulling together previously  unavailable do c u m e n t a t I o n  in  a  m o s  t c r e  a t i v e   w a y  a  n d —t h r o u g h  K w I t n y' s  o r ig i n a l  r e s e a r c h—

does not seem to recognise this.  

The Godfather in Australia is (mostly) an excellent piece of reportage, but the  early chapters are, especially in comparison with Drug Traffic and The Prince and the Premier, an inferior and wrong-headed history of organised crime in Australia.

In these chapters, Bottom suggests that organised crime in Australia is dominated by a secret Italian society, which I find extremely dubious, if not racist. The Italian  presence, like the Lebanese and Chinese, is undeniable; but the Irish — the Kellys  and the Murphys — 

take precedence over the Sergis and the Bellinos; and above all  the ethnics are the corrupt members of the Sydney Establishment 

and their American  gangster friends.  

In this regard, the mirror world of the illegal drug trade simply reflects the power  structures of the public world. 

It is simple economics that the Americans dominate the world illicit drug trade because the US drugs market is the largest

in the world, something like 50% of the world drug trade.

As a consequence, Australia, like many  other countries, finds itself embroiled in the violence and politics of the $200 billion  US drugs black market. It is only our traditional subservience to 'our great and  powerful ally' which makes us shrink from this truth.

In marked contrast to the works of the three blind commissioners, the Sackville

Royal Commission into the Non-Medical Use of Drugs in South Australia

represented a thoughtful examination of the drug problem in Australia. Headed by a

triumvirate consisting of a professor of law, a professor of medicine and a professor  of sociology, and aided by an exceptional research team,

 the various publications of  the Sackville Royal Commission have the advantage of being written by people who were experts in the field, rather than by judges. I would single out two of their  productions for praise: John Lonie's (1978) A Social History of Drug Control in  Australia; 2,1 and Keith Windshuttle' s unpublished monograph Drugs and the Press,

1977-1979 22 . Windshuttle's analysis is that the media play a dubious,

 double role, simultaneously glamorising drugs and drug use while condemning them.

Windshuttle summarised this 'Reefer Madness' style as a formula consisting of titilation, followed by arousal, followed by condemnation.

Predictably, the Sackville  Commission's sensible and intelligent Final Report 33 was savaged by the Murdoch  media with this same formula of moral 

outrage and condemnation. I would like to express my gratitude to the Department of the Premier and Cabinet (South Australia) 

 for granting me access to the Sackville Archives.

Marijuana Australiana is thus a history of an illicit world, the world of cannabisuse and cannabis users in Australia between 1938 and 1988, 

which uses significant illicit sources. It is in five parts. The first part looks at the ending of legal cannabis in  Australia in the years following 1938, 

when the word 'marijuana' was first  introduced into Australia. The second part looks at the rebirth of cannabis use  

amongst the Baby-Boomer young during that decade of dissent (1964 -1975) known  variously as the Vietnam years and the Whitlam years. 

The third part looks at the launch of the War on Drugs in the decade that followed the dismissal of the Whitlam  government in the 'constitutional coup' of 

November 1975, and describes the social  forces that propelled this Americanisation of drugs policy in Australia. The fourth  part is an economic history of the Australian cannabis market in the period 1973-  1998, called 'History By Numbers'. The fifth part synthesises this economic history  with the previous literary history to explain the 'mega-features' of the War on Drugs  period, and to provide an insight into the top of the Australian cannabis trade. While the third part examined the War on Drugs from the bottom level, from the level of  the ordinary cannabis user, the fifth part examines the cannabis trade at the highest  level, the level of international drug traffickers, the level of Nugan Hand and the  Sydney Connection. 

Nugan Hand Bank General Information

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nugan_Hand_Bank]

Nugan Hand Bank was an Australian merchant bank that collapsed in 1980 after the suicide of one of its founders, Australian lawyer Francis John Nugan, resulting in a major scandal.^[1] News stories suggested that the bank had been involved in illegal activities, including drug smuggling, arranging weapons deals, and providing a front for the United States Central Intelligence Agency. Speculation grew when it became known that the bank had employed a number of retired United States military and intelligence officers, including former CIA director William Colby.

Investors' losses and the speculation surrounding the bank's activities led to three major government investigations over the next five years. The bank's co-founder, American Michael Jon Hand, and two other bank employees were indicted for conspiring to "pervert the course of justice" by destroying or removing bank records. Hand fled abroad in June 1980. In 1985, a Royal Commission of Inquiry found that while the bank had committed numerous violations of banking laws, the allegations of drug-smuggling, arms dealing and involvement in CIA activities were not substantiated.^[2][3]

Founding

Nugan Hand Ltd. was founded in Sydney in 1973 by Australian lawyer Francis John "Frank" Nugan and former U.S. Green Beret Michael Jon "Mike" Hand. According to writer Alfred W. McCoy, the bank was formed with a fraudulent claim of $1m in share capital: "With only $80 in the company's bank account and just $5 in paid-up capital, Frank Nugan wrote his own company a personal check for $980,000 to purchase 490,000 shares of its stock. He then covered his massive overdraft by writing himself a company check for the same amount."^[4] Kings Cross restaurateur Bernie Houghton was also involved in the bank from the beginning.^[5]

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. 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, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Cayman Islands and Washington D.C..

According to a former employee speaking in 1980, the bank paid commission of up to 2.5% on unsecured investments of $1m or more, when the going rate was around 0.25%. Together with related costs, the bank was paying over 12% to access funds.^[6] Yet the bank never became involved in traditional merchant banking activities like equity investment or mortgage financing; instead, its principals sought all manner of unconventional investment opportunities, including gun running and attempts to corner various commodities markets, such as Malaysian rubber and Indonesian oil.^[6] Via its Cayman Islands subsidiary it also provided tax avoidance and evasion schemes.^[6]

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 AdmiralEarl P. Yates as bank president and ex-CIA head William Colby as legal counsel.^[7]

Australian trucking magnate Peter Abeles was also connected with the bank.^[8]

Bernie Houghton became the bank's Saudi Arabian representative;^[9] but eventually had to flee that country in a hail of bullets, as depositors sought to recover their money.^[10]

Michael Hand had formed a close business and social relationship with former Sydney police constable and underworld "patron", Murray Stewart Riley.^[11] From April 1976, Hand initiated five cash transfers totaling $295,000 to the Hong Kong office. Riley’s subordinates used these funds to buy heroin that was then shipped to Australia. Upon Riley’s advice, Hand opened branches in Thailand “to attract drug money” and two years later, ordered the destruction of all incriminating records relating to Riley’s money transfers.^[12]

Collapse and Scandal

The bank's collapse was precipitated by the death of its founder Frank Nugan in the early hours of 27 January 1980. 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. An inquest later returned a verdict of suicide. However, questions remain unanswered in regard to the lack of fingerprints on the weapon and the probability that the police who found Nugan had prior knowledge of his death.^[13]

Suspicions about the bank's activities grew in subsequent days as details of the contents of Nugan's car emerged. Of special interest was the business card of William Colby. Furthermore, Nugan's office had been ransacked and Hand and Yates had ordered important company files destroyed or hidden elsewhere.^[14] Peter Butt states that Brian Alexander who was on bail, due to charges related to the Mr Asia drug syndicate, accompanied investigators when they searched the deceased Nugan's home. During the search, the investigators were interrupted by police officers who were responding to an anonymous phone caller who had claimed that police were in trouble at the residence. During this period, Alexander roamed freely and had the opportunity to remove incriminating documents.^[15]

The official inquest into Nugan's death in April 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.

After destroying many of Nugan Hand's records, Hand fled Australia under a false identity in June 1980.^[16]

Investigations

Three major government investigations issued reports devoted to the activities of Nugan Hand. Two of these were from bodies specifically created to examine the scandal: the first, the Commonwealth-New South Wales Joint Task on Drug Trafficking, consisted of investigators from federal and state government, and lasted from 1980 to 1983; the second, the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Activities of the Nugan Hand Group, was headed by Donald G. Stewart, and lasted from 1983 to 1985. In addition, the Corporate Affairs Commission of New South Wales, a state level organ charged with regular oversight of business activities in New South Wales, began looking into the bank almost immediately after Nugan's suicide^[17] and issued seven interim reports from 1980 until 1983, when it completed its investigation.

A report by the New South Wales Corporate Affairs Committee linked former Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos to the bank.^[18] 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.

The Royal Commission found that the Nugan Hand Bank was implicated in money-laundering, illegal tax avoidance schemes, and widespread violations of banking laws.^[19] 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".^[20] However, the Royal Commission did not find credible evidence of drug-smuggling, arms dealing, and CIA involvement.

The Royal Commission found that suggestions of "CIA connections" were widespread, stretching back to an apparent confirmation by a Taiwanese general in 1978. However, the Commission argued there was a lack of specific allegations, let alone evidence to substantiate them.^[21] The Commission argued that the CIA would "shy away from having anything at all to do" with such a badly run bank.^[22] The Commission dismissed claims that Houghton was a CIA agent, and that the bank was disseminating money for the CIA.^[23] The Commission accepted Colby's evidence that he was merely giving legal advice to Nugan and Hand relating to either or both of them taking up residence in the United States.^[24][25]

The Commission concluded that Yates, who had apparently been recruited by Hand, was responsible for the involvement of other retired military and intelligence personnel.^[26] According to the Commission, Hand believed they would instil confidence in the bank, and their knowledge of South East Asia would be advantageous.^[26] Stewart later commented that the involvement of these figures gave the impression that the bank had connections that it did not actually have.^[27]Apart from the bank accepting deposits with no questions asked, the Royal Commission found no credible evidence of involvement in the drug trade.^[28] However, Stewart stated in his memoirs that he had "no doubt" that Houghton, Nugan, and Hand played a part in drug trafficking at Houghton's Kings Cross establishments.^[29]

The Royal Commission's findings conflict with the findings of the 1982 NSW Joint Task Force on Drug Trafficking which found that Hand had encouraged Murray Riley and his associates to use Nugan Hand facilities to move drug money.^[30] Task Force investigator, Clive Small, concludes that the Stewart Royal Commission was a whitewash:

“The royal commission was so dismissive of an American connection that many people who read it simply felt that it was a cover up, because it was in effect so superficial and so dismissive. It never attempted to put into context its findings with the findings of the Joint Task Force, which have not been found to be in any way, shape or form inaccurate or unreliable”.^[31]

No one connected with Nugan Hand has ever been convicted of a crime.

Allegations of CIA Involvement…

Politician and jurist, John Dowd, states that Nugan Hand became the vehicle to quietly move drug industry money. Dowd advises that this led to dealing with corrupt governments and the CIA, but in Australia during the 1970-80s, the CIA was seen as "the good guys".^[32] Similarly, former NSW Attorney General, Frank Walker, insists that from the government’s perspective, having good relations between ASIO and the CIA was more important than bringing criminals to justice.^[33]

Investigative authors, Kwitney J. (1987) and McCoy A.W. (1991) asserted that Nugan Hand Bank had facilitated the international movement of illegal funds for both drug smugglers and the CIA. The Stewart Royal Commission’s decision that there was no evidence to support these allegations astonished these early investigators.^[34]

Revelations by the American defence industry employee, Christopher Boyce, initiated speculation that the CIA and Nugan Hand had also played some part in the dismissal of Australian Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam. For instance, William Blum (1999) states inter alia, that the bank allegedly transferred $2.4 million to the Liberal Party of Australia which contested two forced elections in 1974 and 1975 to oust Whitlam's Labor government. He also states that the Governor General, Sir John Kerr, who was instrumental to the dismissal, was referred to by the CIA as “our man”.^[35] The CIA responded to these allegations with an emphatic denial: “The CIA has not engaged in operations against the Australian Government, has no ties with Nugan Hand and does not involve itself in drug trafficking.”^[36]

Cooperation from the American agencies did not extend to other Australian investigators. NSW Corporate Affairs investigators, Geoffrey Nicholson and Rick Porter, in association with the Nugan Hand liquidator, John O’Brien, requested documents from the FBI and also the CIA. They received documents from both agencies that were so heavily redacted that they were useless.^[37] Joint Task Force investigators also made requests through ASIO to the CIA asking for information. Inexplicably, the requests were never passed on by ASIO.^[38]

In 1981, Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser, who had hoped the Nugan Hand controversy would fade away , stood before the parliament and told the Australian public that the CIA had no interest in the bank. However, Fraser’s assurances were challenged by journalist, Brian Toohey, who wrote that a former CIA agent had told him that Patry E Loomis had worked for the CIA and allegedly arranged for huge sums of money to pass through Nugan Hand for various intelligence operations around the world.^[39] Details in Seymour Hersh’s (1981) article ‘The Qaddafi Connection’ in The New York Times supported Toohey’s assertions.^[40]

In an interview with documentary maker Peter Butt, Michael Hand’s military colleague and Nugan Hand ‘fixer’, Douglas Sapper, claimed that Nugan Hand Bank had been a conduit for CIA money.^[41]

Locating Hand

In March 1991, the Australian magazine The Eye reported that Michael Hand was living in the United States, giving an address and other details,^[42] but Australian authorities declined to pursue an extradition.^[43]

In November 2015, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that Peter Butt had located Hand living under the name Michael Jon Fuller in Idaho Falls, Idaho.^[44] Peter Butt queried the failure of the FBI to find him, given that Fuller's social security numbers are identical to Hand's.^[45]

References

1.  Pilger, John, A Secret Country, Vintage Books, London, 1992, ISBN9780099152316, pp. 208, 209-12, 231, 307, 318.
2. Jump up^ "Royal commission report: Nugan Hand 'not into drugs, arms'". The Canberra Times. ACT. 1985-11-28. p. 8. Retrieved 2015-05-03.
3. Jump up^ Final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Activities of the Nugan Hand Group (Report). 2. Sydney: Government Printer. 1985. pp. 859, 930, 744.
4. Jump up^ McCoy, Alfred W. (1991). The politics of heroin: CIA complicity in the global drug trade. Lawrence Hill Books. pp. 462–478. ISBN 1556521251.
5. Jump up^ Stewart, Don (2007). Recollections of an Unreasonable Man. Sydney: ABC Books. pp. 164–165. ISBN 9780733318948.
6. ^ Jump up to:a b c Sydney Morning Herald, 26 September 1980, Ambitious schemes never eventuated: Chase after an elusive 'big deal'
7. Jump up^ Stewart, Don (2007). Recollections of an Unreasonable Man. Sydney: ABC Books. pp. 166–167, 171–172. ISBN 9780733318948.
8. Jump up^ Tony Reeves, Mr Sin: The Abe Saffron Dossier, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 2007, p 84.
9. Jump up^ Sydney Morning Herald, 25 September 1980, The last 20 frantic day's of Frank Nugan's life: Desperate bid to save bank empire

10. Jump up^ Stewart, Don (2007). Recollections of an Unreasonable Man. Sydney: ABC Books. p. 170. ISBN 9780733318948.

11. Jump up^ NSW Joint Task Force, Report, Vol 2, Nugan Hand, 330.

12. Jump up^ McCoy Alfred W. (1991) 468.

13. Jump up^ Peter Butt (2015). Merchants of Menace. Sydney: Blackwattle Press. pp. 166–168, 192–200.

14. Jump up^ Butt P.2015, 173-179.

15. Jump up^ Butt P. 2015,171- 172.

16. Jump up^ Sheehan, Paul; Tom Ballantyne & Greg Wilesmith (21 August 1981), "How Michael Hand Left Australia", Sydney Morning Herald

17. Jump up^ Kwitny, p. 333

18. Jump up^ Foley, Stephen (8 April 1983), "NSW report shows link with Marcos relatives", The Age

19. Jump up^ "Cabinet Documents on the Inquiry into the Nugan-Hand Group : Government of the Commonwealth of Australia". Internet Archive. Retrieved 2015-10-03.

20. Jump up^ Morton, James & Susanna Lobez (2010), Dangerous to Know: An Australasian Crime Compendium, Melbourne University Publishing, p. unknown, ISBN 978-0-522-85681-1 Morton and Lobez cite John Owen's 1983 book Sleight of Hand: The $25 Million Nugan Hand Bank Scandal for the claim.

21. Jump up^ Final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Activities of the Nugan Hand Group (Report). 2. Sydney: Government Printer. 1985. pp. 740–741, 744.

22. Jump up^ Final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Activities of the Nugan Hand Group (Report). 2. Sydney: Government Printer. 1985. p. 744.

23. Jump up^ Final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Activities of the Nugan Hand Group (Report). 2. Sydney: Government Printer. 1985. pp. 744–745.

24. Jump up^ Final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Activities of the Nugan Hand Group (Report). 2. Sydney: Government Printer. 1985. pp. 749–750.

25. Jump up^ Stewart, Don (2007). Recollections of an Unreasonable Man. Sydney: ABC Books. pp. 171–172. ISBN 9780733318948.

26. ^ Jump up to:^a b Final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Activities of the Nugan Hand Group (Report). 2. Sydney: Government Printer. 1985. p. 742.

27. Jump up^ name="Stewart 2007 166–167, 171–172"

28. Jump up^ Final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Activities of the Nugan Hand Group (Report). 2. Sydney: Government Printer. 1985. p. 859.

29. Jump up^ Stewart, Don (2007). Recollections of an Unreasonable Man. Sydney: ABC Books. p. 165. ISBN 9780733318948.

30. Jump up^ Commonwealth-New South Wales Joint Task Force on Drug Trafficking,June 1982, Report. Volume 2. Nugan Hand (Part 1),442.

31. Jump up^ Butt P. 2015, Author’s interview with Clive Small , 236.

32. Jump up^ Butt P. 2015, Author’s interview with John Dowd, 265.

33. Jump up^ Butt P. 2015, Author’s interview with Frank Walker, 264.

34. Jump up^ Butt P. 2015, 233.

35. Jump up^ Blum, W. 1999, 'Australia 1973-1975: Another free election bites the dust' in Killing Hope: US military and CIA interventions since World War II. Maine: Common Courage Press, p. 249.

36. Jump up^ Kwitney J. 1987, 354

37. Jump up^ Butt P 2015,Interview with Rick Porter, 220-223

38. Jump up^ Butt P. 2015, Interview of Clive Small, 228

39. Jump up^ Brian Toohey, National Times, 31 May 1981, p1.

40. Jump up^ Seymour Hersh, New York Times, 14 June 1981.

41. Jump up^ Butt P. 2015, Author’s interview with Doug Sapper,240.

42. Jump up^ Campbell, Rod (1991-03-27). "Notorious banker found, but who cares?". Canberra Times. p. 1. Retrieved 2015-05-03.

43. Jump up^ Campbell, Rod (1991-04-08). "No extradition for Hand". Canberra Times. p. 7. Retrieved 2015-05-06.

44. Jump up^ Murphy, Damien (2015-11-09). "Nugan Hand bank mystery: Michael Hand found living in the United States". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2015-11-10.

45. Jump up^ Butt P. 2015, 265

Michael J. Hand By John Simkin, 

August 1, 2006 in JFK Assassination Debate 

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/topic/7574-michael-j-hand/

John Simkin Admin

There is not a great deal on the web on Michael J. Hand. He has not been seen since disappearing from Australia after the death of his partner, Frank Nugan. It is believed that the CIA arranged for him to start a new life in the US. Anyone know anything about him?

Michael Jon Hand, the son of a civil servant, was born in the Bronx on 8th December, 1941. According to Jonathan Kwitny in his book The Crimes of Patriots: A True Tale of Dope, Dirty Money, and the CIA: "Hand passed every class he took, and was noted for exceptional character, courtesy, cooperation, and appearance. His IQ registered an also exceptional 131."

In 1959 his mother died after falling or jumping from a third-floor window. Soon afterwards he attended a one-year course at the New York State Ranger School. This was followed by a year managing a sports school in Los Angeles.

In May 1963 Hand joined the US Army and started his training at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. During the Vietnam War he won the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC). According to the DSC citation he almost single-handedly held off a fourteen-hour Vietcong attack on the Special Forces compound at Dong Xaoi.

In 1966 he left the army to work "directly for the U.S, Government". Friends of Michael Hand have suggested that he was employed on undercover missions for the Central Intelligence Agency in Vietnam and Laos. One reported that he "helped train the mountain people - Montagnards - and worked closely with the Air America crews that supplied them". According to Jonathan Kwitny Hand worked under William Colby during the Vietnam War.

Michael Hand moved to Australia in September, 1967. At first Hand went to work selling development lots along the Australian coast. The company, Ocean Shores Development, was run by lawyer Fred Miller, a senior executive for the shipping empire owned by Sir Peter Abeles, the longtime business partner, Rupert Murdoch. One of the largest investors in this scheme was the singer Pat Boone. The registered directors included Boone of Beverly Hills, California and Patricia Swan of Sydney, Australia. Swan was Frank Nugan's secretary.

It was while working for Miller that Hand made contact with Bernie Houghton who had also moved to Australia in 1967. Houghton had established the Bourbon and Beefsteak Bar and Restaurant in Sydney. He claimed that he met Hand in the autumn of 1967. However, in one interview he admitted he had been told about Hand in 1964: "I had heard of Mike Hand's great combat exploits and courage, which was well-known in Vietnam."

Regular visitors to the Bourbon and Beefsteak Bar included two Central Intelligence Agency station chiefs in Australia (Milton Corley Wonus and John Denley Walker). Lieutenant Colonel Bobby Boyd, a Texan who was a former U.S. embassy military attaché in Latin America, also went to work for Houghton.

In 1969 Hand formed his own company called Australian and Pacific Holdings. His two partners were Clive Wilfred Lucas and John J. Foley. The plan was to develop an island off Australia's barrier reef. Hand and Lucas visited Vietnam where they raised $16,000 from members of the U.S. Army. On 16th January, 1970, the directors of Australian and Pacific Holdings decided to lend the $16,000 to Frank Nugan.

In May 1970 a list of Australian and Pacific's shareholders was filed with the government. Of the thirty-seven listed shareholders, four had the address c/o Air America whereas another had the address c/o Continental Air Service. Later both Air America and Continental Air Service exposed as a CIA front. Five shareholders were reachable through the U.S. Agency for International Development. This agency posed as a cover for CIA covert operatives such as David Sanchez Morales.

In the early 1970s Hand spent a lot of time travelling. A former CIA colleague, Douglas Sapper, claimed "Michael showed up in Laos a lot. I saw him in Phnom Penh (Cambodia) from time to time." Sapper also saw Hand with Houghton in Vietnam. Bernie Houghton later told the police that he was with Hand buying surplus U.S. war material for resale.

Houghton clearly had important contacts in Australia. When he applied for a new Australian visa in 1972, he gave the immigration officers the name of Leo Carter, director of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) in New South Wales, to support his application. Carter also arranged for him to get permission for unlimited re-entries to Australia in the future.

Allan Parks claims that Houghton was active in the drug trade in the 1970s. "There's no doubt about it, he'd fly anything. The Golden Triangle, that's where he got his opium from. There was one flight, he flew in slot machines. He did some deals over in India."

There is no doubt that Michael Hand and Frank Nugan were involved in promoting anti-socialist political causes. As Jonathan Kwitny points out in The Crimes of the Patriots: “By associating with the more hard-hat attitudes of the right wing of Labour, Nugan and Hand may have done more to help their cause than they could by sticking to the more right-wing parties. Certainly it is a standard ploy of the CIA to work less with the most openly anti-communist parties than with the anti-communist wing of the party on the borderline.”

In 1973 Michael Hand and Frank Nugan, an Australian lawyer, established the Nugan Hand Bank. Another key figure in this venture was Bernie Houghton, who was closely connected to CIA officials, Ted Shackley and Thomas G. Clines.

Nugan ran operations in Sydney whereas Hand established a branch in Hong Kong. This enabled Australian depositors to access a money-laundering facility for illegal transfers of Australian money to Hong Kong. According to Alfred W. McCoy, the "Hand-Houghton partnership led the bank's international division into new fields - drug finance, arms trading, and support work for CIA covert operations." Hand told friends "it was his ambition that Nugan Hand became banker for the CIA."

In 1974 the Nugan Hand Bank got involved in helping the CIA to take part in covert arms deals with contacts within Angola. It was at this time that Edwin Wilson became involved with the bank. Two CIA agents based in Indonesia, James Hawes and Robert Moore, called on Wilson at his World Marine offices to discuss "an African arms deal". Later, Bernie Houghton arrived from Sydney to place an order for 10 million rounds of ammunition and 3,000 weapons including machine guns. The following year Houghton asked Wilson to arrange for World Marine to purchase a high-technology spy ship. This ship was then sold to Iran.

By 1976 the Nugan-Hand Bank appeared to have become a CIA-fronted company. This is reflected in the type of people recruited to hold senior positions in the bank. For example, Rear-Admiral Earl P. Yates, the former Chief of Staff for Policy and Plans of the U.S. Pacific Command and a counter-insurgency specialist, became president of the company. Other appointments included William Colby, retired director of the CIA, General Leroy J. Manor, the former chief of staff of the U.S. Pacific Command and deputy director for counterinsurgency and special activities, General Edwin F. Black, former commander of U.S. forces in Thailand, Walter J. McDonald, retired CIA deputy director for economic research, Dale C. Holmgren, former chairman of the CIA's Civil Air Transport and Guy J. Pauker, senior Republican foreign policy adviser.

One of those that Earl P. Yates brought in to help the Nugan Hand Bank was Mitchell WerBell. Yates later told the Joint Task Force on Drug Trafficking he recruited WerBell as a consultant because he "had extensive experience in Central America".

On 27th November 1979 Michael Hand wrote to Ted Shackley. It concerned a meeting the two men had recently attended in Washington: "The opportunity of meeting you again on different terms was very enjoyable and I sincerely trust that something worthwhile businesswise may surface and be profitable for both of us."

Former CIA agent, Kevin P. Mulcahy later told the National Times newspaper "about the Agency's use of Nugan Hand for shifting money for various covert operations around the globe."

The investigative journalist, Jonathan Kwitny, became convinced that the Nugan Hand Bank had replaced the Castle Bank and Trust Company in Nassau, as the CIA's covert banker. The bank, run by Paul Helliwell, was forced to close after the Internal Revenue Service discovered that he Castle Bank was laundering CIA funds and drug profits.

On 7th January 1980, Robert Wilson (House of Representatives Armed Services Committee) and Richard Ichord (chairman of the Research and Development Subcommittee of the Armed Services Committee) had dinner with Bernie Houghton at the Bourbon and Beefsteak Bar and Restaurant in Sydney.

On 27th January, 1980, Frank Nugan was found shot dead in his Mercedes Benz. With his body was a Bible that included a piece of paper. On it were written the names "Bob Wilson" and "Bill Colby". Robert Wilson was a senior member of the U.S. House of Representatives Armed Services Committee and William Colby was a former director of the CIA.

Bernie Houghton was in Switzerland at the time and he immediately rang his branch office in Saudi Arabia and ordered the staff to leave the country. Houghton also visited Edwin Wilson's office in Geneva and left a briefcase with bank documents for safekeeping. Soon afterwards, a witness saw Thomas G. Clines going through the briefcase at Wilson's office and remove papers that referred to him and General Richard Secord.

Two days after Nugan died, Michael Hand held a meeting of Nugan Hand Bank directors. He warned them that unless they did as they were told they could "finish up with concrete shoes" and would be "liable to find their wives being delivered to them in pieces".

Michael Hand, Patricia Swan, Bernie Houghton and his lawyer, Mike Moloney, spent the next few days removing files from Nugan's office. They also began paying back selected clients. One estimate is that over $1.3 million was paid out in this way.

Frank Nugan's inquest took place in April, 1980. Testimony from Michael Hand revealed that Nugan Hand was insolvent, owing at least $50 million. Hand then promptly fled Australia under a false identity on a flight to Fiji in June 1980. Bernie Houghton also disappeared at this time and it is believed both men eventually reached the United States.

According to one witness, Thomas G. Clines helped Bernie Houghton escape. Michael Hand also left the country accompanied by James Oswald Spencer, a man who served with Ted Shackley in Laos. The two men traveled to America via Fiji and Vancouver. One report published in November, 1980, suggested that Michael Hand was living in South America. It claimed that he had managed to escape with the help of "former CIA employees".

An investigation by the Australia/New South Wales Joint Task Force on Drug Trafficking discovered that the clients of the Nugan Hand Bank included several people who had criminal convictions relating to drug offences including Murray Stewart Riley, Donald William McKenzie, James Lewis Williams, Malcolm Craig Lord, Charles Robertson Beveridge, Barry Graeme Chittem, Murray Don Newman, Bruce Alan Smithers, James Sweetman, James Blacker, Colin Courtney, Stephen Demos, John Brooking and John Ceruto. According to the records the bank was making $100,000 a year from tax advice. In reality, it was receiving it for money laundering.

One right-wing organization called Accuracy in Media defended the Nugan-Hand Bank claiming it was really an honest but hard-luck banking organization that had been maligned by an anti-military press.

The Australian government asked the Royal Commissioner D. G. Stewart to investigate the Nugan-Hand Bank scandal. The Stewart Royal Commission was published in June, 1985. It stated that the "Nugan Hand Ltd. was at all times insolvent... and flouted the provisions of the legislation as it then stood in that large volumes of currency were moved in and out of Australia".

Stewart went on to blame the dead Frank Nugan and the missing Michael Hand for the illegal activities of the bank. Rear-Admiral Earl P. Yates, William Colby, General Leroy J. Manor, General Edwin F. Black, Walter J. McDonald, Dale C. Holmgren, Guy J. Pauker and Bernie Houghton were considered blameless. Despite the evidence, Hand and Patricia Swan, Nugan's secretary, were accused of being the only ones "responsible for the shredding of documents".

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKhandM.htm

 Michael Jon Hand



Paul-Helliwell-meeting-Michael-Hand-and-Frank-Nugan

John Kelly Experienced Member

Posted July 7, 2011

Posted July 7, 2011

To give the appearance of normalcy, Hand rented a flat at 35 Union Street Pyrmont but was actually staying at the Sebel Town House or Bernie Houghton's Elizabeth Bay penthouse. He used the name Alan Winter to leave the country. The real Winter was a normal guy, wife two kids, who worked as a butcher in Bexley. An associate of Hand approached Winter claiming he worked for an insurance company and secured his parent's birthdates, their marriage date and mother's maiden name. At the time, this is all one needed to request a birth certificate. This item plus two photographs would secure a passport. Hand donned a false beard to match Winter and without any problems, got a passport under the name Alan Winter. 48 hours later, Hand left the country. He travelled to Vancouver, then to Ohio (where he connected with the family of an Australian business associate) and then onto New York. Hand's aging father, who he was close to, was in a nursing home there. From here, Hand was guided by his Manhattan handler and disappeared into the murky world of intelligence. About a year after Frank Nugan's death, a Sydney business man claimed to have seen Nugan in a Atlanta bistro. He asked Nugan what he was doing here and got a one word reply, "reaping". Rumors abounded that Nugan was not the one killed in Lithgow but an Italian drug dealer. It was Nugan's brother (a man with somewhat of a shady background) who identified the body. FWIW. JK

Zach Robertson Experienced Member

Posted July 8, 2011

On 7/7/2011 at 10:39 PM, John Kelly said:

Hand was guided by his Manhattan handler and disappeared into the murky world of intelligence. JK

Hi Mr. Kelly,

First off, I just want to say that I very much enjoy reading your posts. They are filled with great insight.

I was wondering if you could share who the Manhattan connection to this is? I seem to remember reading about a man by the name of John Martin who was supposedly from NYC and associated with Intel-types. Is this the man you were referring to?

Thanks, Zach

John Kelly Experienced Member

Posted July 8, 2011

 On 7/8/2011 at 1:00 AM, Zach Robertson said:

  On 7/7/2011 at 10:39 PM, John Kelly said:

Hand was guided by his Manhattan handler and disappeared into the murky world of intelligence. JK

Hi Mr. Kelly,

First off, I just want to say that I very much enjoy reading your posts. They are filled with great insight.

I was wondering if you could share who the Manhattan connection to this is? I seem to remember reading about a man by the name of John Martin who was supposedly from NYC and associated with Intel-types. Is this the man you were referring to?

Thanks,

Zach

Excellent, Zach, you are right on the money. John Martin is an alias of course. He was also a sponsor of Robert Emmett Johnson. I very much enjoy your posts. Keep up the great work. JK

Zach Robertson Experienced Member

n 7/8/2011 at 1:19 AM, John Kelly said:

  On 7/8/2011 at 1:00 AM, Zach Robertson said:

  On 7/7/2011 at 10:39 PM, John Kelly said:

Hand was guided by his Manhattan handler and disappeared into the murky world of intelligence.

I was wondering if you could share who the Manhattan connection to this is? I seem to remember reading about a man by the name of John Martin who was supposedly from NYC and associated with Intel-types. Is this the man you were referring to?

Excellent, Zach, you are right on the money. John Martin is an alias of course. He was also a sponsor of Robert Emmett Johnson. I very much enjoy your posts. Keep up the great work. JK

Posted July 8, 2011

  On 7/8/2011 at 1:19 AM, John Kelly said:

  On 7/8/2011 at 1:00 AM, Zach Robertson said:

  On 7/7/2011 at 10:39 PM, John Kelly said:

Hand was guided by his Manhattan handler and disappeared into the murky world of intelligence.

I was wondering if you could share who the Manhattan connection to this is? I seem to remember reading about a man by the name of John Martin who was supposedly from NYC and associated with Intel-types. Is this the man you were referring to?

Excellent, Zach, you are right on the money. John Martin is an alias of course. He was also a sponsor of Robert Emmett Johnson. I very much enjoy your posts. Keep up the great work. JK

Thanks Mr. Kelly!

Here is an forum topic that I think deserves some more attention here:

Clendenin J. Ryan - Baltimore millionaire and CIA funder

While Clendenin Ryan is likely not "John Martin," I think he has plenty of connections to Col. Ulius Amoss, The INFORM intelligence network, and ultimately Robert Emmett Johnson which in turn, will lead to "John Martin's" true identity.

Zach

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/topic/11614-clendenin-j-ryan-baltimore-millionaire-and-cia-funder/

Clendenin J. Ryan - Baltimore millionaire and CIA funder

By John Bevilaqua, November 18, 2007 in JFK Assassination Debate 

John Bevilaqua Advanced Member

Posted November 18, 2007 (edited)

From a previous posting by Paul Rigby:

p.142: "Who, Amoss wondered, might be willing to invest in such a scheme? [To smuggle Stalin's son out of the Soviet Union – PR] He found the answer through a complicated chain of contacts, beginning with Mrs. Mary Vaughan King, who runs the Baltimore public relations firm, Counsel Services, of which the colonel is a client. It led to Clendenin Ryan, a somewhat quixotic multi-millionaire, who once served as an assistant to Mayor La Guardia, ran for the New York mayoralty himself on an independent ticket and the governorship of New Jersey, published a semi-political magazine, and sent large sums abroad to break communist-inspired strikes and influence voters in favor of anti-communist candidates for high office."

Amoss ran International Services of Information and worked for Frank Wisner of the CIA. Even Carleton S. Coon worked for Amoss at the OSS as a Major under the Colonel. Coon and Amoss later worked with Robert Emmett Johnson in Baltimore at ISI. So now we have Amoss and Coon linked through Clendenin Ryan right into The Richard Condon Manchurian Candidate crowd like Brig Gen Bonner Fellers who was an ISI patron (Fighting Frank Bollinger), and "...that fascinating young man who wrote about man and God at Yale." (William F. Buckley, Jr. founder of YAF which was funded by Clendenin Ryan) and Ray S. Cline who was John Yerkes Iselin himself in Manchurian Candidate. Cline later took over control of R. E. Johnson when Cline ran WACL and murdered Archbishop Romero.

What was the magazine Clendenin Ryan published? The American Mercury from 1950-1952, the Buckley years.

What other groups did he help to start later in his career perhaps using his son Clendenin Ryan, Jr. as a go between and contact point with Doug Caddy his college roommate? The Young Americans for Freedom started at the Sharon estate of William F. Buckley, Jr.

The Conservative Press in Twentieth-Century America - Google Books Resultby Ronald Lora, William Henry Longton - 1999 - Social Science - 744 pages

The new purchaser of the Mercury was Clendenin J. Ryan, an erstwhile reformer who was a prominent financier and the son of an even more prominent financier, ...

books.google.com/books?isbn=0313213909...

The Other Side of the Sixties: Young Americans for Freedom and the ... - Google Books Resultby John A. Andrew - 1997 - Political Science - 287 pages

... David Franke, George Gaines, Robert Harley, James Kolbe, Richard Noble, Suzanne Regnery, Clendenin Ryan, Scott Stanley, John Weicher, and Brian Whelan. ...

books.google.com/books?isbn=0813524016...

Anybody have anything else on this guy Clendenin Ryan? Do a google or a yahoo search on this guy and it may

open your eyes. His family made their money in Copper apparently.

Apparently Clendenin Ryan funded Ulius Amoss and his gang of spies and assassins and somehow Richard Condon found out about Bonner Fellers, Ray S. Cline and Wickliffe Draper and Condon even inserted names of several American

Mercury writers to draw attention to this den of theives and their links to YAF, The American Mercury and The Pioneer Fund. Condon even mentioned American Mercury writers like Arnold Bennett, George Sokolosky, Westbrook Pegler and others from that circle of friends. Clendenin Ryan was involved with the Baltimore & Ohio railroad as well in some form or fashion and Condon mentions that company in ManCand, too.

Richard Condon apparently wanted us to be able to follow the path from Bonner Fellers in Cairo, Egypt through ISI via Amoss and Coon into Baltimore, MD where the trail would be picked up with The American Mercury crowd which was first started in Baltimore by H. L. Mencken then later bought by Clendenin Ryan, who funded several illicit ISI projects. The links back into YAF began with God and Man at Yale (Buckley) via Clendenin Ryan, the publisher of The American Mercury in the early 1950's. Ryan's son also helped start YAF according to Doug Caddy while they were both students at Georgetown. Later the Mercury moved to East 57th Street in NYC when Draper was involved with that publication at the time when he also lived on 57th St in Manhattan. Richard Giesbrecht also isolated American "Mercury" in his statements to the FBI following the Winnipeg Airport Incident.

Will those who could not accept the fact that Richard Condon knew what he was talking about finally admit their

ill conceived or incorrect notions? Does anyone else have any information on Clendenin Ryan to share here?

Edited November 18, 2007 by John Bevilaqua

James Richards Super Member

Posted November 18, 2007 (edited)

During the late 1940's and early 1950's, Clendenin Ryan was the money behind the wiretapping of various government buildings and officials.

His right hand man was an investigator/lawyer named John Broady. Broady was the one who knew where the bodies were buried.

In 1957, Clendenin Ryan allegedly shot himself to death. Some will argue that he had help. Anyway, Broady had connections to Robert Emmett Johnson and to a sophisticated network featuring an intel gathering apparatus that was ultimately recruited by Ulius Amoss.

Clendenin Ryan below.

James

Edited November 18, 2007 by James Richards

Douglas Caddy Super Member

Posted November 18, 2007

  John Bevilaqua said:

From a previous posting by Paul Rigby:

p.142: "Who, Amoss wondered, might be willing to invest in such a scheme? [To smuggle Stalin's son out of the Soviet Union – PR] He found the answer through a complicated chain of contacts, beginning with Mrs. Mary Vaughan King, who runs the Baltimore public relations firm, Counsel Services, of which the colonel is a client. It led to Clendenin Ryan, a somewhat quixotic multi-millionaire, who once served as an assistant to Mayor La Guardia, ran for the New York mayoralty himself on an independent ticket and the governorship of New Jersey, published a semi-political magazine, and sent large sums abroad to break communist-inspired strikes and influence voters in favor of anti-communist candidates for high office."

Amoss ran International Services of Information and worked for Frank Wisner of the CIA. Even Carleton S. Coon worked for Amoss at the OSS as a Major under the Colonel. Coon and Amoss later worked with Robert Emmett Johnson in Baltimore at ISI. So now we have Amoss and Coon linked through Clendenin Ryan right into The Richard Condon Manchurian Candidate crowd like Brig Gen Bonner Fellers who was an ISI patron (Fighting Frank Bollinger), and "...that fascinating young man who wrote about man and God at Yale." (William F. Buckley, Jr. founder of YAF which was funded by Clendenin Ryan) and Ray S. Cline who was John Yerkes Iselin himself in Manchurian Candidate. Cline later took over control of R. E. Johnson when Cline ran WACL and murdered Archbishop Romero.

What was the magazine Clendenin Ryan published? The American Mercury from 1950-1952, the Buckley years.

What other groups did he help to fund and found later in his career? Young Americans for Freedom started at the Sharon estate of William F. Buckley, Jr.

The Conservative Press in Twentieth-Century America - Google Books Resultby Ronald Lora, William Henry Longton - 1999 - Social Science - 744 pages

The new purchaser of the Mercury was Clendenin J. Ryan, an erstwhile reformer who was a prominent financier and the son of an even more prominent financier, ...

books.google.com/books?isbn=0313213909...

The Other Side of the Sixties: Young Americans for Freedom and the ... - Google Books Resultby John A. Andrew - 1997 - Political Science - 287 pages

... David Franke, George Gaines, Robert Harley, James Kolbe, Richard Noble, Suzanne Regnery, Clendenin Ryan, Scott Stanley, John Weicher, and Brian Whelan. ...

books.google.com/books?isbn=0813524016...

Anybody have anything else on this guy Clendenin Ryan? Do a google or a yahoo search on this guy and it may

open your eyes. His family made their money in Copper apparently.

Apparently Clendenin Ryan funded Ulius Amoss and his gang of spies and assassins and somehow Richard Condon found out about Bonner Fellers, Ray S. Cline and Wickliffe Draper and Condon even inserted names of several American

Mercury writers to draw attention to this den of theives and their links to YAF, The American Mercury and The Pioneer Fund. Condon even mentioned American Mercury writers like Arnold Bennett, George Sokolosky, Westbrook Pegler and others from that circle of friends. Clendenin Ryan was involved with the Baltimore & Ohio railroad as well in some form or fashion and Condon mentions that company in ManCand, too.

Richard Condon apparently wanted us to be able to follow the path from Bonner Fellers in Cairo, Egypt through ISI via Amoss and Coon into Baltimore, MD where the trail would be picked up with The American Mercury crowd which was first started in Baltimore by H. L. Mencken then later bought by Clendenin Ryan, who funded several illicit ISI projects. The links back into YAF began with God and Man at Yale (Buckley) via Clendenin Ryan, the publisher of The American Mercury in the early 1950's. Ryan also helped start YAF. Later the Mercury moved to East 57th Street in NYC. Richard Giesbrecht also isolated American "Mercury" in his statement to the FBI.

when Draper was closely involved with that publication.

Will those who could not accept the fact that Richard Condon knew what he was talking about finally admit their

ill conceived notions? Does anyone else have any information on Clendenin Ryan to share here?

Clendenin Ryan was a student at the School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, at the same time I was (1956-60). He was one of my roommates in a off-campus house during that period, along with David Franke. Our house was the scene of laying the groundwork for the modern Conservative movement that was about to be born.

From what I vaguely remember, as this occurred some 50 years ago, he was the son of Clendenin Ryan, and grandson of Thomas Fortune Ryan. During one of our talks, Clendenin told me that his father had contributed the beautiful stain glass window that adorns to this day the front of St. Patrick's on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

Clendenin, my former roommate, was tangentially involved in the founding of YAF. His contribution was in the area of activity, not in funding. YAF was founded by funds advanced by Charles Edison, son of Thomas Edison, for whom I worked following my graduation from Georgetown. Charles Edison, former governor of New Jersay and former Secretary of the Navy under FDR, had his home and office in the Towers of the Waldorf. His philosophy, which I have adopted to this day, is that the American Eagle must have two strong wings to fly a straight course: a left one and a right one. The right wing has been way too strong for the past 30 years; hopefully, the left wing will strengthen in 2008 and the Eagle will again soar straight-away.

Clendenin Ryan, former roommate and friend, died from cancer in the late 1960's, on a date that I cannot pinpoint from memory. My guess is that he was under 30 years of age when he passed.

I never met his father nor, of course, his grandfather. The posting above about his father's political activity comes as news as his son never mentioned any of this to me.

John Bevilaqua Advanced Member

Posted November 18, 2007

From Time magazine...

Behind the pink, tubby façade of rich Clendenin John Ryan, the soul of the selfless public servant throbbed. Unlike many another son of privilege, he did not collect show girls; he devoted himself to business and the sober pursuit of turning rascals out of government.

His credentials were irreproachable: he was Princeton '28, Republican, a grandson of Financier Thomas Fortune Ryan. With other moneyed political innocents (and some toughened professionals), he plunged eagerly into the Fusion movement which made Fiorello La Guardia mayor of New York in 1934. The Little Flower made him his secretary, later gave him a couple of city posts, until the two reformers had a falling out in 1940.

Noisy & Hopeful. Not until two months ago did Clen Ryan return to New York politics. This time his entry was noisy and his ambitions were high; he might even be a mayor-maker again.

Ryan dumped $500,000 into something he called the National Foundation for Good Government. It would scotch corruption not only in New York but elsewhere. He railed at Governor Tom Dewey for not investigating Mayor Bill O'Dwyer's administration. He trotted down to City Hall with ten questions for O'Dwyer. Their substance: Is Slot Machine Tycoon Frankie Costello the real boss of New York City?

Bill O'Dwyer contemptuously snorted "crackpot." Ryan was undismayed. He chirped back: "A question a day might keep Costello away." The next morning, resplendent in pearl-grey Homburg, Ryan was back at City Hall. This time he nailed to the front door of the Hall photostats of some old (and generally discredited) grand jury charges that O'Dwyer had been grossly lax as district attorney of Brooklyn. Ryan happily held every pose the photographers yelled for, withdrew the nail, and went away.

The Wild Plot. Then the pros—Bill O'Dwyer and Tammany Hall—looked Clen up & down without great passion, spit on their hands and went to work. Before they were even half through they had made Clen Ryan look bad. In the dead of night Bill O'Dwyer summoned newsmen to City Hall, himself broke the wildest wiretapping story to hit the town since Justice Aurelio was overheard thanking Frankie Costello for his nomination (TIME, Feb. 7).

A jaunty, 6 ft. ex-city detective and wiretapping expert named Kenneth Ryan (no kin to Clen) had been picked up. The mayor himself had broken him down in his City Hall office; $10,000 worth of telephone and tapping equipment had been found in the detective's Yonkers home. A plot was afoot, said O'Dwyer, to listen in on the telephones of several score of city officials (including his) and some big wheels in the Midwest. A prominent someone had given Ryan $100,000 to do it.

At 7 that morning, after long questioning, Tapper Ryan asked permission to use a ladies' washroom near the mayor's office. Leaving his hat and coat on a chair, the tap expert beat it out a back window of City Hall and got clean away. While the cops bayed after him, Mayor O'Dwyer brought in the "someone" named by Tapper Ryan. This turned out to be a lawyer and private eye named John Broady, who, as it happens, works for none other than do-gooder Clendenin John Ryan and years before had gathered evidence for Ryan's annulment from the Countess Marie Anne Wurmbrand-Stuppach.

This week Bill O'Dwyer and the rest of the pros handed the case over to the grand jury. Tapper Ryan, who surrendered after 48 hours, was indicted. Rich Man Ryan was questioned by the grand jury. Nobody had actually accused the chubby amateur of anything. They had just roughed him up some. New York City will elect a mayor this November and Tammany, it appeared, was bent on wising up simon-pures like Clen Ryan.

John Bevilaquan Advanced Member

Posted November 18, 2007

Condon and Giesbrecht both mentioned: THE AMERICAN MERCURY and George Lincoln Rockwell and William F. Buckley, Jr. worked there at one time or another. Clendenin J. Ryan's ownership of The

Mercury coincided with Buckley's publishing of God and Man at Yale. The fact that Condon knew about Gen Bonner Fellers, Ray S. Cline, Wickliffe Draper, Robert J. Morris and many others from that period leads me to believe he knew what they were up to even then.

During 1923, while he and the noted drama critic George Jean Nathan were still editing the Smart Set, Henry Louis Mencken gleefully anticipated the new monthly to be published the following January by Alfred A. Knopf. Mencken planned "a serious review the gaudiest and damndest ever seen in the Republic."' Theodore Dreiser suggested several flashy titles. ''What we need," Mencken explained to his old friend, "is something that looks highly respectable outwardly. The American Mercury is almost perfect for that purpose. What will go on inside the tent is another story. You will recall that the late P. T. Barnum got away with burlesque shows by calling them moral lectures.''2 During the next decade, Mencken would thrust his arms wide, gather in as much of America as possible, and make it all part of the show. Under his forceful hand, the American Mercury would provide rollicking, highly irreverent commentary upon the American scene. From 1924 to 1933, ''Mencken'' and the ''Mercury" would become synonymous. This coupling would prove to be one of the magazine's greatest strengths as well as a salient factor in its decline.

When the American Mercury was established, Mencken and Nathan were each given twenty-five shares of stockthe remaining one hundred were divided among Knopf, his wife, and his fatheras well as full editorial control.3 The magazine was intended for the intelligent, solvent, urbane American who was skeptical about brummagem utopias and the yearning to save humanity. ''The American Mercury will never have a million circulation,'' Mencken explained. "It is not headed in that direction. Its function is to depict America for the more enlightened sort of Americansrealistically, with good humor and wholly without cant.

It is read wherever a civilized minority survives the assaults of the general herd of lawyers and come-ons. Its aim is to entertain that minority and give it consolation.''4 The American Mercury was called many things, a number of them vicious, but few called it dull.

Even fewer called it unattractive. As Mencken wished, the magazine's rambunctious content was sedately clothed by its respectable title and the distinctive Paris-green cover. The paper was expensive Scotch featherweight, and the Garamond type was set in double columns. There were no illustrations in each issue of 128 pages.5 Mencken had chafed under what he considered the ostentation of the Smart Set's cover and the poor quality of its paper. With the Mercury, he had a magazine whoseunderstated elegance set it apart from many of its competitors.

As he had done when he and Nathan were editing the Smart Set, bMencken continued to live in Baltimore and make periodic trips to New York City. Highly efficient, Mencken and Nathan decided to handle submissions as they had done earlier. If the first reader liked the manuscript, then he forwarded it to his colleague, whose approval was also necessary for a piece to be accepted. Disagreements were rare, and authors received a quick response to their material. Encouragement and incisive criticism accompanied many letters of rejection. This editorial courtesy, the prompt response and payment, and the prestige of appearing in the Mercury helped to atone for the magazine's low rate of pay: two cents per word for prose, and fifty cents per line for poetry.