The similarity of Vietnamese and Afghan chronies is striking , the Afghani president fled with 169mio, South Vietnamese president was spiriting away tons of gold , rumored to be over 16 tons
CIA sure has a talent to find the most corrupt folks they can and then throw bags of cash at them.
From a NYT Article in 1975
''Strong indications of a major scandal came to light several days ago when a pilot of the Swiss charter company Balair reported in Basel that while he had been in Saigon two weeks ago he had been asked by some Vietnamese to carry 16 tons of gold to Switzerland.
It was widely rumored that the gold belonged to President Nguyen Van Thieu or the former Cambodian President, Lon Nol, although there was apparently no specific evidence of ownership. The pilot said that when he learned gold had been loaded aboard his aircraft he had refused to carry the cargo.
The air transport of gold involves many problems, an aviation informant here said, because a number of countries, notably India, forbid airplanes carrying gold to land.''
Nguyen Van Thieu fled from Saigon on April 26, 1975, while the city was under siege and would inevitably fall. His escape came only five days after he resigned from the office of president. While many other South Vietnamese people were crushed to death while trying to get on American transports, Nguyen Van Thieu received a personal airlift out of Saigon on a U. S. Air Force C-118 transport plane. Dubious reports from 1975 claimed that he smuggled 15 tons of baggage out of Vietnam to accompany him on his exile, possibly including over three tons of gold. Whether or not that is true, other airlines in South Vietnam also reported that they were asked to ship gold out of the country. Spokesmen for the Swissair and Balair airlines stated in 1975 that Thieu had approached their companies about sending 16 tons of gold to Switzerland. Both companies claimed that they had refused the job, as they feared the gold had originated from South Vietnam’s national gold reserve.
Despite his plan being thwarted, Nguyen Van Thieu lived comfortably for the rest of his life. He first flew to Taiwan, then Britain, and finally settled down near Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States. Nguyen Van Thieu died in his Boston home in 2001.