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AUKUS critic from US has tangled Aussie connection

By Kishor Napier-Raman and Madeleine Heffernan

We are sure that there is nothing personal behind the intense scrutiny that US defence official Elbridge Colby is applying to the $368 billion AUKUS nuclear submarine agreement Australia has with the US and UK.

Colby is under-secretary of defence for policy, the third-most senior official in the US Defence Department, responsible for briefing US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.

AUKUS critic Elbridge Colby has family ties to Australia.

AUKUS critic Elbridge Colby has family ties to Australia.Credit: Bloomberg

But Colby has family ties to Australia, and none of them are pleasant.

As has been reported, Colby’s grandfather was William Colby, a CIA director in the 1970s. But what has escaped attention so far is how the former CIA director later became an adviser to the Nugan Hand investment bank. It is difficult to find a more infamous name in recent Australian history.

The investment bank collapsed in 1980 after one of its partners, Frank Nugan, was found dead from gunshot wounds in Lithgow. Another partner, Michael Hand, went on the run for decades.

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As this paper reported in 2015: “The 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.

“Over the years, the two words ‘Nugan Hand’ became shorthand for drug-dealing, gun-running, organised crime and clandestine intelligence activities.

“But nobody has been convicted. Governments, security and espionage agencies ran dead or appeared to look the other way. Many men associated with the bank’s affairs in Australia, the US and Asia have died early or in mysterious circumstances.”

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Colby’s death was described as the “most problematic”. He was director of the CIA between 1972 and 1976 as the US ended its involvement in Vietnam, but was later hired as a legal adviser by the Nugan Hand bank.

In 1996, he left his home in Maryland on a solo canoe trip and was found dead, face down in the water. Colby’s death was officially ruled accidental, but remains the source of ongoing conspiracy theories which have divided his family.

Hat tip to former Herald scribe Bruce Maxwell for pointing out the connection. Maxwell’s memoir China Media Australia Exotic Seas: A Recent History of Us, which refers to the scandal, was published last year. It covers much else, such as Maxwell’s reporting on the Freedom Rides protests for Indigenous advancement through regional Australia in 1965, which included Charles Perkins. A rich history.

Out of practice

Remember Jean Nassif, of bright yellow Lamborghini fame?

The Sydney property developer is still hiding out in the safe haven that is Northern Lebanon, where he fled after his Toplace construction empire collapsed in 2022, leaving creditors owed more than $2 billion.

Nassif is currently the subject of a criminal probe investigation involving offences related to taxation and building regulations. He’s also at the centre of the Independent Commission Against Corruption’s long-running probe into his dealings with the Hills Shire Council. Not to mention an arrest warrant, issued for Nassif in 2023 over an alleged bank fraud.

Ashlyn Nassif has had her practising certificate renewed and immediately resuspended for another year.

Ashlyn Nassif has had her practising certificate renewed and immediately resuspended for another year.Credit: Brook Mitchell

On that matter, Nassif’s daughter Ashlyn Nassif, who is not accused of being involved in any of her father’s other wrongdoing, has had to face the music over alleged fraud in regard to a $150 million loan from Westpac.

Nassif jnr has been in and out of local courtrooms, and in July her lawyer, Warwick Korn, put forward an application to have the case discontinued. She is yet to enter any pleas.

The ongoing proceedings have paused Nassif’s own legal career. She was a partner at a firm called EA lawyers, but after the charges were made in 2023, the Council of the Law Society of NSW suspended her practising certificate. Last month, the body renewed and then immediately resuspended her practising certificate for another year on the grounds that Nassif had been charged with a number of serious offences.

That restriction is likely to remain in place until the charges against Nassif are resolved.

Mansion makeover

Another day, another multimillion-dollar renovation job in the pristine harbourside enclave of Vaucluse.

This time, the culprits are Quentin Flannery and his wife Kim, who last year bought the 1890s trophy home from Chinese resources executive Zhian Zhang for $31 million, upgrading from their old Bellevue Hill digs. Quentin is the son of billionaire mining magnate Brian Flannery.

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They’ve wasted no time in giving the rundown mansion a $16 million modern makeover, despite it already boasting sweeping harbour views, a swimming pool and a championship-sized tennis court.

The renovation includes a grand new facade in vintage greige, gym, internal makeover, and toy room.

Must be nice.

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Original URL: https://www.watoday.com.au/cbd/aukus-critic-from-us-has-tangled-aussie-connection-20250729-p5mimw.html