Editing Air America (section)

==The Birth of Nugan Hand and Global Expansion==
The [[Nugan Hand Bank]] emerged in 1969 as a successor to Helliwell’s offshore banking empire, which collapsed after IRS scrutiny exposed its CIA links (The Great Heroin Coup, p. 274). [[Frank Nugan]], an Australian lawyer, and [[Michael Jon Hand]], now a seasoned CIA operative, founded Australian and Pacific Holdings in Sydney, ostensibly to develop a resort (In Banks We Trust, p. 66).  The company’s shareholders included four Air America employees, one from Continental Air Services, and five from USAID, all tied to CIA operations in Indochina (The Great Heroin Coup, p. 274). This venture served as a front, providing loans to Nugan to establish the Nugan Hand Bank in 1973 (In Banks We Trust, p. 66).

Nugan Hand Bank, headquartered in Sydney, offered high interest rates, tax-free deposits, and secrecy, attracting depositors and criminal clients like the “Mr. Asia” heroin syndicate (In Banks We Trust, p. 70). Its branches, eventually numbering twenty-two worldwide, were staffed by former CIA and military officials, including [[William Colby]] (legal counsel), [[Walter McDonald]] (consultant), and [[Dale Holmgren]] (Taipei branch manager, formerly with Air America) (In Banks We Trust, p. 74). Houghton, operating out of Sydney, leveraged his Bourbon and Beefsteak restaurant as a hub for CIA and Australian intelligence activities (Prelude to Terror, p. 36).

The bank’s primary function was laundering drug money, particularly from the Golden Triangle. Air America, despite official denials, continued to transport opium, with pilots like Del Rosario reporting coded shipments marked “diverse” (Prelude to Terror, p. 37; The Great Heroin Coup, p. 134). In Long Pot village, Hmong farmers sold opium to Vang Pao’s officers, who used Air America helicopters to ship it to Long Tieng (The Politics of Heroin, pp. 325–327; Blond Ghost, p. 149). By 1971, Vang Pao operated a heroin laboratory at Long Tieng, producing high-grade no. 4 heroin for GI addicts in Vietnam (The Politics of Heroin, p. 321). The Nugan Hand Bank facilitated the movement of these profits, with clients like Murray Riley smuggling heroin to the U.S. via Australia (The Great Heroin Coup, p. 276).

The CIA’s role in Laos faced scrutiny as the war wound down. In 1971, Alfred McCoy’s research exposed Air America’s drug transport, prompting threats and intimidation from the CIA (The Politics of Heroin, pp. 618–619). A 1972 Inspector General report acknowledged that Laotian officers were drug traffickers but denied Agency involvement, claiming Air America’s policies forbade contraband transport (Blond Ghost, p. 148). However, the report admitted that the CIA relied on these officers’ goodwill, highlighting the moral ambiguity of its operations (Blond Ghost, p. 149).

The fall of Saigon in 1975 marked the end of Air America’s operations, with its assets sold to [[Evergreen International Aviation]], a CIA-linked firm (One Nation Under Blackmail, p. 16). Vang Pao fled to Thailand, later settling in Montana with CIA assistance (The Politics of Heroin, p. 331). The Nugan Hand Bank, however, continued to thrive, expanding into Hong Kong, Thailand, and the Bahamas, serving as a conduit for drug money and CIA black funds (In Banks We Trust, p. 70).