Nicholas L. Deak, the Hungarian “James Bond of the World of Money”

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Abstract (max. 250 words):
An article on Nicholas Deak published in the June 12, 1964 issue of Time magazine is the source of this moniker. His bio in brief: Nicholas Louis Deak was born in 1905 in Hateg/Hátszeg, Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, immigrated to the USA in 1939 and was murdered in 1985. In between these dates, Deak had an exciting life, though not as violent as Bond’s, from joining the OSS during WWII to establishing Deak & Co after the war. His holdings grew from a small export-import firm in 1946 to a financial empire in the 1980s which included currency exchange offices all over the world, banks in the US, Switzerland and Austria, and various other trading houses. As Deak & Co grew newer and newer business were added. From the mid1970s the company was often in the news, but the news were frequently bad. The IRS investigated the firm’s currency exchange operations and was found violating the Bank Secrecy Act (1970) and aiding money laundering activities of drug dealers. The Congressional hearings (1976) on corporate corruption exposed the firm’s role in the Lockheed bribery scandal. As customers “ran” from the firm, Deak & Co was forced into bankruptcy in 1984. In 1985 he was shot dead in his office, by a woman, with no conclusive motive for the murder. Although the following year the firm emerged from bankruptcy, without Deak at the helm, in a couple of years, however, it disappeared from the scene. This presentation will look at Deak’s life and analyze how he and his firm reacted to and tried to influence the changing financial landscape.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Professor of Economics at St. John's University.