This is the front page lead story in today's Financial Times. Surprisingly little coverage in other media, but it looks like the highest profile demise of an eminent banker since they found Roberto Calvi hanging under Blackfriars Bridge. http://www.ft.com/hippocampus/q2f227a.htm~~ quoted text~~
Riviera manhunt for the killers of Edmond Safra
By Robert Graham in Paris
A vast manhunt was under way Friday night across the Riviera for the killers of Edmond Safra, the Syrian-born international financier, murdered in his Monte Carlo penthouse early Friday. Two masked men broke the tight 24-hour security surrounding the 68-year-old founder of the Republic Bank of New York and set fire to his duplex penthouse apartment in the most exclusive part of Monaco.
Police said Mr Safra appeared to have died from suffocation after seeking safety in an upstairs bathroom with a female member of the family staff, who also died. Lily, Mr Safra's Brazilian wife, escaped unharmed because she locked herself in a room on the lower floor, escaping the fumes. There were also reports that Mrs Safra's daughter was present but unharmed.
A senior figure in Mr Safra's banking empire said he assumed Lily was the heir to his fortune, saying she had recently taken an active part in his business affairs. The high-profile death was also a severe blow to Monaco's image as a safe place for the world's wealthy to live. Police in the tiny principality and in neighbouring France were cautious about who was responsible for the killing. But a senior French police officer said: "Monaco prides itself on its security and this kind of crime is not committed by hoodlums. Any attempt against a big-time financier with full-time bodyguards suggests the hand of organised crime." Suspicions of a contract killing prompted speculation that Mr Safra had crossed elements of the Russian mafia. Republic Bank of New York has been helping the US authorities monitor alleged Russian money laundering through foreign banks.[NOTE--THE GENEVA CHIEF PROSECUTOR SAID SAFRA WAS KILLED FOR COOPERATING WITH THE FBI IN THE LAUNDERING THROUGH REPUBLIC OF $4.8 BILLION IN IMF LOANS TO RUSSIA.]
Leigh Robertson, general manager of Safra Republic Holdings, which controls the financier's European operations, said: "In August we noticed something unusual in one of the bank accounts and alerted the US authorities." [NOTE: TED AND VIVIAN WERE HIRED IN AUGUST: BOTH NONFRENCHSPEAKERS PENCILLED IN AT THE LAST MINUTE BY SONIA WHOM LILY PAID 100K]
Mr Safra was in the final stages of selling his 28 percent stake in the Republic Bank of New York to HSBC. The$2.8bn deal had been delayed because it was caught up in the backwash from a scandal involving false Japanesebonds. [NOTE: SEE THE MARTIN ARMSTRONG DEFENSE FUND REFERENCED ABOVE--ANOTHER INNOCENT SCAPEGOAT]
But it was expected to receive approval by the US Federal Reserve Bank on Monday, according to Mr Robertson. HSBC had agreed in May to pay $10.3bn for Republic New York and Safra Republic Holdings, Mr Safra's banking vehicles in the US and Europe. Last month, after the deal had been thrown into doubt by the discovery of alleged Japanese securities fraud at one of Republic's clients, Mr Safra agreed to accept a $450m reduction in his own payment, and to guarantee a portion of any liabilities that might arise from the affair.
Close associates of Mr Safra said he had been in Monte Carlo for the past two weeks and had no plans to move until a board meeting in Paris on December 16. [NOTE: SO THE HIT HAD TO GO DOWN BEFORE THEN AND BEFORE THE HSBC SALE]
Though the attackers were able to escape, Monaco police hoped that one of the principality's many security cameras would have captured footage for an identification lead. [NOTE--THE LANDING CAM IN THE PENTHOUSE REFERRED TO IN THE FIRE REPORT WAS "NOT WORKING" PER LILY'S PEOPLE--YET THE PLACE WAS MASSIVELY RENOVATED WITH COMPLETION IN AUGUST]
Mr Safra, who was born in Aleppo, held a Lebanese passport and came from a Jewish family with a long history of Levantine trade and finance. His fortune was largely made in Brazil where he set up a trading company in 1953 before moving into banking. He built up the Geneva-based Trade and Development Bank, which he sold to American Express in 1985. He successfully fought off allegations that TDB was a conduit for money laundering and donated the proceeds of a libel suit to charity. [NOTE--USING STANLEY ARKIN WHO NOW REPRESENTS LILY. AMEX HAS ON ITS BOARD HENRY KISSINGER WHO TERMED THE SAFRA DEATH "A VINDICTIVE ACT"]~~ end quoted text ~~