Michael Hand of Nugan Hand found

[Peter Lemkin]

Australian mystery man found in Idaho Falls

• By Michael H. O'Donnell modonnell@journalnet.com
  
• Nov 9, 2015
  
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An Australian "60 Minutes" reporter, right, greets a man he believes is Michael Hand in Idaho Falls. The program says Hand has been linked to international spying and money laundering, but has been missing for 35 years.

• Sydney Morning Herald
  

Michael Hand

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IDAHO FALLS A former Australian banker and U.S. Green Beret who Australia's television show "60 Minutes" said has lived in hiding since 1980 is an Idaho Falls resident.
The TV show, Australia's version of CBS' "60 Minutes," said Michael Hand is now an Idaho Falls resident, age 73, living under the assumed name of Michael Jon Fuller. The show said Hand has been linked to international spying and money laundering. Two former business associates also wound up dead. And Hand has been missing for 35 years.
When the Australian television crew confronted Fuller in the parking lot of an Idaho Falls Smith's store Sunday, he refused to answer any questions and drove off.
A story that was published Monday in the Sydney Morning Herald states that Hand (Fuller) manufactures tactical weapons for U.S. Special Forces, special operations groups and hunters in Idaho Falls. Fuller is the owner of TOPS Knives in Idaho Falls.
Bonneville County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Bryan Lovell said no warrants for Fuller's arrest have ever come through the sheriff's office.
"Typically, if he was wanted by an agency, they would get a hold of us," Lovell said. "No one has contacted us."
Lovell did say if an arrest warrant was out of a foreign country like Australia, the U.S. Marshal Service would likely handle it. The sergeant added that the county sheriff normally would be notified of any actions involving the U.S. Marshal.
"We'd get wind of that," Lovell said. U.S. Marshal Brian Underwood said there are currently no warrants from Australia involving Michael Hand or Michael Jon Fuller. He said if that country issues a provisional warrant, his office would act upon it.
"Right now we have nothing," Underwood said.
The current events Australian television show relied heavily on information published by Australian author Peter Butt in his book, "Merchants of Menace" to produce its Sunday program on Hand.
A promotion for the Australian television show said: "The collapse of the infamous Nugan Hand Bank wiped out tens of millions of dollars, most of it from mum and dad investors. When Frank Nugan, one of the founders of the bank, was found dead it meant just one man knew where the money was, and the answer to many more questions. Then he disappeared vanished from the face of the earth."
According to the Australian national newspaper "The Australian," after Hand served in the Vietnam War, he and a partner, Frank Nugan, set up the Nugan Hand international merchant bank based in Sydney. Eventually that bank came under investigation by Australian authorities amid rumors of its involvement with the American Central Intelligence Agency and organized crime. Allegations included that the bank was a front for anti-communist covert activities during the Cold War.

Hand disappeared after Nugan was found dead beside a rifle in his car near the Australian city of Lithgow on June 19, 1980. The death was ruled a suicide at the time, but Hand could not be found.
The bank collapsed and left a debt of more than $50 million, according to the Australian newspaper. No criminal charges were ever filed against anyone involved with the bank's collapse.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported Monday that William Colby, director of the CIA from 1973 to 1976 and the chief of CIA Southeast Asian operations in Vietnam during the war, served as a legal adviser to the Hand Nugan bank. Colby died in April 1996 while on a solo canoe trip in Maryland and his death was ruled accidental.
The Sydney newspaper article said author Butt thought Hand had been protected since fleeing Australia in June 1980.
"It turns out that the FBI could have dealt with Michael Hand long ago. A simple background check reveals Fuller's Social Security number is identical to the one allocated to Michael Hand in New York in 1960," Butt said. "The fact that Hand has been allowed to live the free life in the United States suggests that he belongs to a protected species, most likely of the intelligence kind."
The Idaho Repository shows only three traffic infractions filed against Michael Jon Fuller of Idaho Falls. They were failure to use a seat belt charges in 2010 and 2003, and a failure to maintain liability insurance in 1999. The no-insurance charge was dismissed and Fuller was found guilty of the seat belt violations and fined $10 each time.