No extradition for Hand - Lack of interest in bank director 'astonishing' - The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995) - 8 Apr 1991 (original) (raw)

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Mon 8 Apr 1991 - The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995)
Page 7 - No extradition for Hand

Lack of interest in bank director 'astonishing'

It seems almost certain that

no-one in Australia will be

Hand, one-time director of

the failed Nugan Hand Bank,

extradited from the United

States to face criminal char-

A warrant for Mr Hand's arrest

has been in existence for more than

10 years but it is highly unlikely

that it will ever be executed.

In fact, the warrant might no

longer justify Mr Hand's extradi-

tion, given subsequent events.

The warrant alleges that Mr

Hand and two other former Nugan

Hand employees conspired to per-

vert the course of justice and

breached the companies code. The

allegations relate to alleged at-

tempts to thwart a NSW Corporate

Affairs Commission investigation

of the collapse of the Nugan Hand

Charges against Mr Hand's al-

leged co-conspirators were dropped

several years ago. It might, there-

fore, be difficult to obtain a con-

spiracy conviction against one

person only (ie. Hand). It might be

even harder to use the charge as

justification for an expensive extra-

dition application in the US.

The remaining charges were

brought under the Companies

Code. The five-year limit in which

to begin proceedings has long since

It would appear, therefore, that

without fresh charges being pre-

pared, there is no legal basis upon

which Mr Hand could be extradited

to Australia. It is understood that

no such charges exist and that there

are no plans to initiate any.

Accordingly, Michael Jon Hand,

49, of Suite 327, 1075 Bellevue

Way, NE Bellevue, Washington

State, USA, is likely to remain a

The Nugan Hand empire col-

lapsed after the death of another

director, Frank Nugan. Two coro-

nial inquiries found that Nugan

committed suicide, shooting him-

self as he sat in his Mercedes near

Lithgow, NSW. Despite those find-

ings, there are still those who be-

Before his death, Nugan and his

brother, Ken Nugan (who died in

1986), had been charged with de-

frauding their companies. Ken Nu-

gan was jailed later. The allegations

undermined confidence in the

group and are said to have led to

The bank collapsed, millions of

dollars in depositors' funds mis-

sing. The extent of the total def-

iciencies is unknown. They appar-

ently amounted to a few million

dollars in the NSW-incorporated

companies — "peanuts", as some-

one close to Nugan Hand investiga-

Michael Hand: likely to remain a free man. Help

The losses elsewhere, particular-

ly in Hong Kong, where the bank

was formally based, were probably

much larger. The bank was actually

registered in the Cayman Islands.

The total deficiency bandied

about over the years has ranged

from 7millionto7 million to 7millionto24 million.

Mr Hand's present residential

address — in Seattle, Washington

— has been published recently in

the Press but this has not elicited

much response from the authori-

Mr Hand does not appear to be

on the active-investigation list of

any Australian law-enforcement or

regulatory body. The Canberra

Times has approached several of

these in the past 10 days but has

been unable to find one that was

particularly interested in locating

Mr Hand, let alone seeing him re-

Those contacted were the NSW

and Victoria Police; the Australian

Federal Police; the National Crime

Authority; the office of the Federal

Director of Public Prosecutions;

the Australian Securities Commis-

sion; the Australian Taxation Of-

fice; and the Attorney-General's

Most had no interest in Mr

Hand or his whereabouts. The Aus-

tralian Taxation Office seemed

more interested than most.

some interest and suggested that

discussions might be held with

"corporate affairs" (now the ASC)

bccause that organisation had insti-

tuted criminal proceedings in the

That interest seems to have

evaporated. The ASC is not inter-

ested in Mr Hand, and his name

does not appear on its investigation

list. It suggested the NSW Fraud

Squad, but that is not investigating

The official liquidator of the

NSW-based Nugan Hand compa-

nies, a Sydney chartered accoun-

approachcd too. He said he had no

particular interest in Mr Hand be-

cause there were no issues on which

he might be questioned which were

likely to benefit creditors.

The Nugan Hand issue — which

was reported on by the Stewart

Royal Commission in 1985 — has

been raised also with the offices of

the Prime Minister, Bob Hawke;

the Federal Attorney-General, Mi-

chael Duffy; the NSW Premier,

Nick Greiner; the NSW Attorney

General, John Dowd, and the NSW

Police Minister, Ted Pickering.

Matters relating to Royal commis-

sions are the responsibility of the

Prime Minister and/or Premier.

The overwhelming lack of inter-

est in Mr Hand is astonishing.

For two years, between 1983 and

1985, Justice Donald Stewart in

vestigated the group's activities.

While his Royal commission ruled

out any involvement in the CIA or

in drugs and arms-running, it said

the group had committed many

breaches of foreign-exchange regu-

lations, had been involved heavily

in tax-evasion schemes, and had

been involved in other fraudulent

conduct under Commonwealth

Justice Stewart did not say pub-

licly who had been responsible for

these offences. That section of his

final report was suppressed.

Despite the judge's findings, not

a single person was charged.