FAILED BANK LINKED TO CIA? PROBE ASKS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000302510004-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 9, 2010
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: May 8, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/09: CIA-RDP90-00552R000302510004-8
~7 TICLE APP
lam
C PAC
Fai1~d`
to (: IA? probe as~~s
Claims against the bank in Aus-
tralia :and .Singapore alone total al-
most $50 million, authorities say. in
the Philippines, more than S3.mil-,
lion in claims is currently outstand-
ing, according to investigators.
Depositors will be lucky to re-
coup "20 cents on the dollar;" in-
vestigators say. -
Some depositors, however. prob-
ot file cl
ims In
i
ill
w
a
?
n
e
-of
y`Tj,l,a j~- -- .I avly W
yvi ..
" $I has said all of its info-r- -evidence that Nugan Handoperated
SYDNEY
I
V. ; - h3 -apprap2iate Australian agency," .ttiat -were--thinly -veiled frauds de-
wo
th
FB
n
L.
e
I -release 1-19-pages of
information -it,'--thas ;dompiied --on 'Nugan Hand =;"the'failed Aus-
,:r trgilh2n .bank'
think was laun-
dering _ . money
and trafficking
in -arms and
drugs -when it
collapsed 'three
years-ago?
'-That'' ques-
MIA}:! HERALD
8 MAY 1-083
wNchit will not identify. -.- signed to help depositors .hide Hie-
'-'Investigators in -the :case, 'who gal income, avoid taxes and circum-
F y th wave never seen,tbe FBI vent'siict-Cu fency laws: -1
~-suspect ihat-It-~a*as~traed over Police say NuBan Hand also set
e5Australian Security `intelli- ; up and controlled a series of -shell
noe';Organization "agency. , the companies. to -launder-profits ob-
try's intelligence agency. tained from illegal heroin and mari-
?he circumstances surrounding Jun-a trade between Southeast
the bank, its -founders and-the num- Asia; `:Australia and the. United
:ber. of former U.S. military. and in- States:, : __
telligence, .personnel:il _:employed -Aad officials sow suspect Nugan
. --- H
d
-.lion and -allege. ' -`Johnie Carre plot. -
CIA =maintained Nugan suicide
.the :, -bank are New South Wales police found
"Royal `Commission -investigation des-Benz about 100 miles from Syd- Green Beret who Australian-police
into Nugan Hand's activities. ney -on Jan.-.7, 1980. A coronor .say ,was a CIA undercover opera-
In the fifth major inquiry-Into the ruled that the '37-year-old Austral- --tive. -Hie .,and Nugan founded the
mission is.,investigating_alle8ations -rifle he was clutching when police
that Nugan 'Hand violated Austral- found his body.
ian narcotics, weapons -and foreign An his pocket,-.Nugan was cam-
-exchange laws" = 4119 former CIA- -director Willi am
However, questions:-about possi- - -Colby's business card .and a Bible.
Me links -between the defunct bank :Tbe.names. of Colby .and -U.S.. URep.
and the FBI, CIA and the U.S. State Bob Wilson of California, then the
and Justice departments are never ranking Republican on the House
.far from the surface. Armed Services Committee, were
. The bank was-founded in 1974 by written on a piece of cellophane
Australian Charles Nugan and K- found in the Bible, police testified.
chael Hand, an ex-Green Beret who After Nugan's death, Nugan
Australian police say was a CIA op- Hand employes testified, senior
erative. bank officials immediately began
. The 'United States consistently destroying thousands of pages of
has .denied any connection with or +company records. '
special knowledge of'Nugan Hand,- -? Other: bank employes testified
which went bankrupt in-- 1980. :.that .-Nugan - had "been -acting
However, when an Australian re- strangely" after learning that Baha- -
porter requested inlormation-about ' mian banking authorities were pre-
the bank in 1979 under the Freedoml paring -to -suspend the banks li-
of Information Act, the FBI allowed-.' tenses in January of that year be-
him to see only 70 heavily censored cause of irregularities-in the comps-
pages of Nugan Hand's 189-page ny's 1979 financial statements.
file because it fell in the category of Singapore. banking . authorities
national defense or -foreign poli-- also. were asking questions about
c5 ._:Nugan. Hand transactions just be-
fore 'Nugan's death, :authorities
learned. -
an
'WC s - dealing in illegal arms
,shipments ?and- setting up -contacts
in the eroin,trade in South-Africa.
American.-connection
eormer U.S. Army sergeant Rob-
ert Gehring testified in a previous
investigation that in, June 1980,
after the bank failed, he helped I
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/09: CIA-RDP90-00552R000302510004-8