{"podcast":{"title":"Conspiracy Cabal","slug":"conspiracy-cabal-7759106","podcast_index_feed_id":7759106,"rss_url":"https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/692e431c1fc8491a7b9a3769","website_url":"https://shows.acast.com/conspiracy-cabal","image_url":"https://assets.pippa.io/shows/692e431c1fc8491a7b9a3769/1780012564788-fbe66255-abc6-4b7b-97a1-b15d86551a5f.jpeg","author":"Southern Ocean Media","episode_count":38,"summary":"The sh*t that's in your group chat...just a fair bit more fact checked and a lot more explained. Big Pharma. The deep state. The crisis actors. Alien life. Spy agencies and cover ups. Whatever it is, award winning journo Richard Baker and Dr Nick Coatsworth are your guides on the search for the kernel of truth. Conspiracies are everywhere right now. But, we don’t peddle theories, we go to their point of origin and follow the breadcrumbs to sort the bullsh*t from the verified, while keeping an open mind to things that can’t be explained. Rich has spent years exposing the crooked and corrupt, and Nick has copped death threats from people who thought he was one of THEM. They know what real cover-ups look like, and they also know what happens when paranoia meets the algorithm. Sometimes the conspiracy is real. Sometimes it's designed to sell you on something. Often, it's both. Our mission is to entertain and inform. Rather than condemn and judge. Hear the Conspiracy Cabal every week, and contact the show at conspiracycabal@outlook.com Conspiracy Cabal is proudly supported by WholeLife . Use code CABAL10 for $10 off your first order of $50 or more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privac…","last_synced_at":"2026-09-09T06:20:27.742949+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/conspiracy-cabal-7759106"},"episode":{"title":"10: The Nugan Hand Bank Affair | Did the CIA influence Australian elections?","slug":"10-the-nugan-hand-bank-affair-did-the-cia-influence-australian-elections","published_at":"2026-04-28T15:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/conspiracy-cabal-7759106/10-the-nugan-hand-bank-affair-did-the-cia-influence-australian-elections","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/conspiracy-cabal-7759106","url":"https://shows.acast.com/conspiracy-cabal/episodes/10-robert-hand","audio_url":"https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/692e431c1fc8491a7b9a3769/e/69f09edb5531bfee78352c22/media.mp3","summary":"A man is found dead in his car on a remote New South Wales road in January 1980, a rifle between his legs and a business card in his pocket bearing the name of a former director of the CIA. Within weeks, his bank — a merchant institution with branches in Chiang Mai, Taipei, Saudi Arabia, and almost nowhere you'd expect an Australian bank to be — had collapsed. Millions were missing. His business partner, a former Green Beret with documented CIA connections, vanished without a trace. And the list of names on the bank's letterhead read less like a board of directors and more like a who's who of American intelligence. Frank Nugan's death was ruled a suicide. Michael Hand was never found. The money was never recovered. And somehow, despite a royal commission, a congressional inquiry, and decades of investigative journalism, the full story of Nugan Hand Bank has never quite made it into the mainstream. In this episode, Richard Baker and Dr. Nick Coatsworth follow the money — from the heroin fields of the Golden Triangle to the back channels of Cold War geopolitics — and ask whether what collapsed in 1980 was a bank, a front, or something far more deliberate. - Frank Nugan's death, the scene, the rifle, the business card, and why the suicide ruling has never sat comfortably - Michael Hand, who he actually was, what the CIA has ever admitted, and how a man simply disappears in 1980 - The branch network, what an Australian merchant bank was doing in the world's most sensitive intelligence hotspots - The names on the letterhead — Admiral Earl Yates, William Colby, and what their involvement tells us about who this bank was really serving - The heroin connection, the Golden Triangle, and the long-standing allegation that Nugan Hand was financing covert operations with drug money…","meta_description":"A man is found dead in his car on a remote New South Wales road in January 1980, a rifle between his legs and a business card in his pocket bearing the na…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2242,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/conspiracy-cabal-7759106/episodes/10-the-nugan-hand-bank-affair-did-the-cia-influence-australian-elections/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/conspiracy-cabal-7759106/10-the-nugan-hand-bank-affair-did-the-cia-influence-australian-elections.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}