Joint probe into bank’s alleged drug links

Press, 29 August 1980, Page 1

Joint probe into bank’s alleged drug links

NZPA Sydney The New South Wales and Australian Federal Governments will combine police resources for a joint investigation into alleged links between the failed Nugan Hand Bank and drug trafficking. The state’s Premier (Mr Neville Wran) yesterday agreed to a proposal from the Prime Minister (Mr Malcolm Fraser) that a joint police task force investigate the bank’s dealings.

In his reply to Mr Fraser, Mr Wran made it clear that the work of the task force should not conflict with inquiries already being made by the state’s Corporate Affairs Commission.

Last week a top Victorian policeman added to the. mysteries surrounding the, failed, bank when he linked .it and marijuana

growers in the Griffiths area of New South Wales with the drug-related murders of the Aucklanders, Doug and Isobel Wilson, in a scenario “.typical pf classic organised crime.”

The Assistant Commissioner for Crime (Mr Rod Hall) said it was believed that the New Zealander, Terry Clarke, now facing charges in Britain under the name of Sinclair, was responsible for the Wilsons’ murder. Revelations so far about the Nugan, Hand Bank, which crashed after the death of a founder this year, have led. to allegations of the bank’s involvement in drug and crime money, potential blackmail' and possible murder, the United States Central Intelligence Agency, and even the White House.

Frank ■ Nugan,. aged 37, the. son . of -a humble fruit

and vegetable grower, was found dead by the police near Sydney early on January 27. He was sprawled across the front seat’of his late-model Mercedes car, a bullet in his head and a high-powered military rifle in his hands. Four months later the Coroner (Mr Derek Hand) found that Mr Nugan had committed suicide. •

Mr Nugan’s business associate, Michael Hand (no relation to the Coroner), a former American Green Beret soldier in Vietnam, described Mr Nugan as “a fighter” and said that although he had “misused and abused powers under his control” he would not commit suicide.

He had told the inquest Mr Nugan had misappropriated several million dollars’and had made loans totalling nearly $3 million to persons and groups

whose identities were unknown.

In April the three Australian companies of the Nugan Hand group were wound up and a liquidator appointed. They had estimated deficiencies of at least $l4 million, although reports have said that the losses could total up to $5O million.

Then Michael Hand disappeared. He had gone into hiding soon after the end of the Nugan inquest but remained in touch with his lawyer until June. Rumour about Nugan Hand involvement in shady finance had been about before Mr Nugan shot himself. But this month Mr Justice Woodward, in his second report on drug trafficking in New South Wales, added some substance and called for a full inquiry into the affairs of the failed bank.