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Merchants of Menace: The True Story of the Nugan Hand Bank Scandal
Guns, drug money and the CIA... These were not your average bankers. This was not your average bank.
In 1980, following the mysterious death of Australian merchant banker, Frank Nugan, his New York-born partner, Michael Hand, brazenly ordered the destruction of the bank's records. Hand then disappeared from Sydney and hasn't been seen since.
Among the ruins of the Nugan Hand global financial empire, investigators uncovered astonishing evidence of gunrunning, money laundering for drug traffickers and connections to the CIA.
When the FBI and a Royal Commission failed to join the dots, those intimately involved with the case suspected a cover up.
Brimming with chilling new evidence and powerful testimonies, Merchants of Menace cracks open the sensational Nugan Hand story and goes on the hunt for the world's most elusive corporate fugitive...
'The FBI integrated me on behalf of the Australians. The agents asked what I knew about the Nugan Hand bank and what happened to Frank Nugan. I said 'I don't know. But whatever it was, it was the lynchpin that started everything crumbling.' He kept saying, 'Do you know where Michael Hand is?' and I said, 'No' He said. 'Are you sure?' Finally I said to him, 'Look, why don't you ask the CIA in Langley Virginia and maybe they will tell you where he is, because they know.' I don't think they were really looking for Michael and they certainly weren't going to tell the Australian government where he was.' - Douglas A Sapper III
In 1980, following the mysterious death of Australian merchant banker, Frank Nugan, his New York-born partner, Michael Hand, brazenly ordered the destruction of the bank's records. Hand then disappeared from Sydney and hasn't been seen since.
Among the ruins of the Nugan Hand global financial empire, investigators uncovered astonishing evidence of gunrunning, money laundering for drug traffickers and connections to the CIA.
When the FBI and a Royal Commission failed to join the dots, those intimately involved with the case suspected a cover up.
Brimming with chilling new evidence and powerful testimonies, Merchants of Menace cracks open the sensational Nugan Hand story and goes on the hunt for the world's most elusive corporate fugitive...
'The FBI integrated me on behalf of the Australians. The agents asked what I knew about the Nugan Hand bank and what happened to Frank Nugan. I said 'I don't know. But whatever it was, it was the lynchpin that started everything crumbling.' He kept saying, 'Do you know where Michael Hand is?' and I said, 'No' He said. 'Are you sure?' Finally I said to him, 'Look, why don't you ask the CIA in Langley Virginia and maybe they will tell you where he is, because they know.' I don't think they were really looking for Michael and they certainly weren't going to tell the Australian government where he was.' - Douglas A Sapper III
278 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 4, 2015
3 people are currently reading
120 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 26, 2019
What a fascinating read!
I hadn't heard of the Nugan Hand Bank or any of the people associated with it.
I'm flabbergasted not so much by the fact that it happened BUT that they got away with it for so long!
An absolutely riveting chapter in Australia's modern history.
I hadn't heard of the Nugan Hand Bank or any of the people associated with it.
I'm flabbergasted not so much by the fact that it happened BUT that they got away with it for so long!
An absolutely riveting chapter in Australia's modern history.
October 8, 2020
Nicely written, best NH book so far and I've read them all (and grew up amongst it ). Well researched and enjoyable
June 3, 2021
It was an interesting story and very well researched but not the kind of book that I tend to enjoy.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews