One of Australia’s most wanted fugitives behind the notorious merchant bank Nugan Hand who kicked off his career in Australia by selling blocks of land at Ocean Shores has been tracked down in the US after 35 years on the run.
Michael Hand disappeared after the collapse of the bank in 1980 and soon after his partner, Griffith-born lawyer Frank Nugan, was found dead beside a rifle in his Mercedes-Benz outside Lithgow which a coroner had ruled as suicide.
It came as corporate and police investigators, ASIO and the FBI started investigating the Nugan Hand bank and the involvement of the ex Special Forces soldier.
The Daily Mail and Fairfax Media have just published excerpts of new book by Sydney author Peter Butt called Merchants of Menace revealing that Hand, 73, has been living under the name Michael Jon Fuller and resides in the small town of Idaho Falls.
Butt tipped off the 60 Minutes program (US) and reporters approached a man they claimed was Hand outside a chemist recently but he refused to comment.
Hand moved to Australia in September, 1967 and was soon working at selling development lots along the Australian coast.
According to the US-based Education Forum website, the company, Ocean Shores Development, was run by lawyer Fred Miller, a senior executive for the shipping empire owned by Sir Peter Abeles and longtime business partner, Rupert Murdoch.
Popular US singer Pat Boone was one of the largest investors in the scheme. The webiste says the registered directors included Boone, of Beverly Hills, California and Patricia Swan of Sydney, Australia. Swan was Frank Nugan’s secretary.
According to APN Media, construction of Ocean Shores development stalled a few years after the estate ‘officially opened’ in 1969, then in the early 1980s, another development company which had taken over the estate sold it on the Bond Corporation, owned by the infamous Alan Bond.
The second stage eventually went ahead, but the third stage was blocked after a campaign by environmentalists succeeded in preserving the northern part of the development land as the Billinudgel Nature Reserve.
Promised infrastructure for the new suburb in Byron shire including sportsfields, a district commercial centre, a marina and schools and a hospital never went ahead.
The Nugan Hand bank collapsed with debts in excess of $50 million and a subsequent royal commission found evidence of money-laundering, illegal tax avoidance schemes and widespread violations of banking laws.
Hand co-founded the Sydney-based international merchant bank but vanished amid rumours of CIA and organised crime involvement in the bank.
According to the new book, he now manufactures tactical weapons for US Special Forces, special operations groups and hunters.
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