The_Info_Web/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Frank Nugan.md

category	tags	summary	born	died	location	relations
Business & Finance	Person PROMIS CIA	Co-founder of Nugan Hand Bank in Australia, linked to CIA-connected Air America officials and international money laundering.	1942-12-30	1980-01-27	Griffith, New South Wales, Australia	type with start fn founded Nugan Hand Bank 1973 3 type with start fn partner_of Michael Hand 1970 3

Frank Nugan was a co-founder of Nugan Hand Bank in Australia, along with Michael Hand and four shareholders who gave Air America as their business address.¹ Seymour wrote that the founders included officials of the Central Intelligence Agency-owned Air America.²

Early career

Francis John Nugan was born on December 30, 1942, at Griffith, New South Wales, the son of a fruit packer. He took an LL.B. at the University of Sydney in 1964 and an LL.M. at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1965. He was admitted as a solicitor in Sydney in 1968. He was a director of Meekatharra Minerals N.L. from 1970 to 1972. The Australian Dictionary of Biography says that "with a New Yorker named Michael Hand, Nugan engaged in land-deals and share-trading," and that the two set up the merchant bank Nugan Hand Ltd in 1973 with a nominal paid-up capital of $1 million.³

Death

Nugan was found dead in his car on January 27, 1980, with a bullet wound and a rifle beside him. The New York Times gave his age as 37.⁴ The Wall Street Journal's report of May 1, 1980 gave it as 35. An inquest ruled the death a suicide, and a lawyer for the insurers of his life told the inquest that the position of the body indicated he could not have shot himself. A business card for William Colby was among the items found on the body.⁵

Corporate Affairs Commission

The Australian Dictionary of Biography reports that the New South Wales Corporate Affairs Commission concluded in 1983 that Nugan had been involved in "massive international and local fraud" and had deliberately falsified the bank's accounts to conceal debt.³

Footnotes

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1. "Failed Bank Linked to CIA Ripoffs." New York Daily News, February 13, 1981, Washington News Bureau report. CIA CREST, CIA-RDP90-00806R000200820040-5. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00806r000200820040-5 ↩︎

2. Seymour, Cheri. The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010. ↩︎

3. Farrell, Frank. "Nugan, Francis John (1942-1980)." Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 15, 2000. https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/nugan-francis-john-11266 ↩︎

4. Schneider, Keith. "North's Aides Linked to Australia Study." New York Times, March 8, 1987. CIA CREST, CIA-RDP90-00965R000605740024-7. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00965r000605740024-7 ↩︎

5. "An Australian Bank Faces Many Charges in Fiction-Like Case" (subhead "Nugan Hand Chairman Found Dead, Accused of Stealing; CIA Link Is Alleged"). Wall Street Journal, May 1, 1980. CIA CREST, CIA-RDP90-00806R000200820048-7. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00806r000200820048-7 ↩︎