Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.
MAIL ON SUNDAY
December 5, 1999
Pg. 8
Does the wife of the murdered banker hold the clue to his death?;
Fears of a ruthless vendetta by Russian Mafia leaves the world's top financiers terrified for their lives
Adam Luck; Ian King
BILLIONAIRE banker Edmond Safra ignored pleas from his wife to leave his Monaco apartment's smoke-filled bathroom minutes before he was suffocated to death by a fire started by assassins.
In a dramatic mobile phone call to her terrified husband, Lily Safra begged him to break out of the barricaded room where he had locked himself and the family nanny away from two masked men who had broken in through the roof of his luxury penthouse.[From what I've been told, these phone records have been suppressed from the "trial." Also, the police emergency tape from December 3, 1999 and the videotape from the penthouse security camera(s) are mysteriously "missing" and therefore unavailable for the trial.]
But Mr Safra the Lebanese-born founder of the Republic National Bank of New York was so scared and confused, fearing the would-be killers were just outside, that he was unable to raise the courage to unlock the door. Instead, he and the family nanny Vivianne Torrent were asphyxiated by fumes.
[Where is the autopsy report? Why isn't DNA evidence allowed in the "trial?" Who were all those workmen who had just been at the apartment for the renovations? Why did Lily decide to bury Edmond in Switzerland, when his lifelong wish was to be buried in Israel? Did someone "twist her arm?" Edmond's family was FURIOUS about this. And Lily wouldn't allow Edmond's brothers near the coffin at the funeral. Why is that? Why were there "multiple ignition sources" reported in the fire report? What happened to Ted's original clothing he wore that night? ]
Prime suspects for the murders are Russian gangsters, believed to be furious at Mr Safra's cooperation with an FBI investigation into their Mafia. The full horror of Mr Safra's last minutes was revealed last night as investigators across three continents were trying to unravel the business practices of one of the world's richest men.
According to police, two men in balaclavas entered Mr Safra's apartment block near the famous Monte Carlo casino through the roof just after 4am on Friday. They then triggered a complex alarm system which alerted Mr Safra, his wife and other members of the household, to their presence. [This is contradictory. The alarm system had been disconnected in July.]
Police believe they attacked Mr Safra, hitting him on the head with a firearm, but he fled to the top-floor bathroom, locking himself inside. [Where is that autopsy report? How would the original police accounts say something about this if they didn't see an injury on Safra's body?]
Frustrated at their inability to reach him, they set fire to the top floor apparently ignoring Mr Safra's wife, who took refuge in the bottom floor of the duplex. In the struggle, a male nurse who was employed to help Mr Safra cope with his Parkinson's disease was stabbed.
The nurse, who police refused to name but detectives believe is American, staggered from the apartment clutching his stomach. Drenched in blood, he had been knifed in the abdomen and the left thigh and said he had been knocked unconscious by a blow to the back of the head. He is now under armed guard at the Princess Grace hospital.
Last night, The Mail on Sunday also learned that Mr Safra's Brazilian-born wife is thought to have told friends that she distrusted his private security force of burly former Israeli commandos.
However, as one of the world's most prominent Jewish businessmen and benefactors of Jewish charities, Mr Safra also feared an attack from Arab extremists. A close friend of Mr Safra's said last night that Mrs Safra had been particularly suspicious of one bodyguard: 'There was extremely bad blood between some of the bodyguards and Lily. She did not trust them and said so in no uncertain terms. But the family didn't take it seriously.
'Lily is the kind of person who dislikes many things.' Mr Safra had made countless enemies during his glittering 50-year career but his biggest and final mistake was to cross the Russian Mafia.
Now, according to members of the business community who have had dealings with the Russians, a host of top Wall Street bankers and even some members of the International Monetary Fund could be the next in line.
There is also speculation that Sir John Bond, chairman of HSBC Holdings which has just paid GBP 6.16 billion for Mr Safra's Republic Bank of New York will be forced to step up his personal security arrangements.
Sir John, a close personal friend of Mr Safra and one of Britain's most respected bankers, is thought to have insisted that Republic pulled the plug on its numerous Russian banking relationships making it harder for the proceeds of organised crime to be laundered. The Russian Mafia, whose previous favoured home had been Geneva, has moved into the tiny principality of Monaco in increasing numbers during recent years and are now the dominant foreign grouping.
And, according to others in the tightly-knit community of tax exiles and international jet-setters who live in Monaco, Mr Safra was murdered to send a message to others who have crossed the Russians.
The SAS-style mission is being seen as the work of former soldiers of the Spetnaz, the former Russian special air service, many of which are now employed as hit-men for the Mafia.
But the gossipy Monaco business community is baffled by the nature of the killing.
They point out that Mr Safra, who despite being crippled with the onset of Parkinson's disease was a meticulous man, and was in the habit of being driven from the building where he was murdered to another home further up the coast.
One Monaco-based businessman said: 'The thing puzzling us is that Mr Safra had a big house to which he travelled every day. The easiest way to hit him would be while he was in transit trying to assassinate him at his apartment at the bank was the risky way of trying to get to him.
'This was obviously a message from the Russian Mafia to others that may have crossed them, "Wherever you are, even in your high-security apartment, you are never safe from us".' Mr Safra is thought to have crossed the Russian Mafia effectively signing his own death warrant around five years ago when his Republic Bank of New York blew the whistle on a suspected GBP 6 billion money-laundering racket.
The Mafia was thought to have been transferring cash from offshore bank accounts into dollar accounts at Republic via the unconnected Bank of New York. There is no suggestion at this stage that Republic or the Bank of New York are guilty of any wrongdoing but Republic's officials have said recently that they alerted the FBI due to concerns over 'suspicious money transfers'.
When Republic announced two months ago that it would be suspending activities with all but a handful of Russian banks, the reaction from Moscow was furious prompting a flurry of speculation surrounding business elites that has even touched Boris Yeltsin's family.
Significantly, the suspension came into effect on December 1, just two days before Mr Safra's murder and despite the efforts of a string of top New York and IMF bankers to persuade Republic and HSBC to change their mind.
For HSBC, owner of the Midland Bank since 1992, Mr Safra's death poses all kinds of questions. Mr Safra had agreed to remain honorary life president of HSBC Republic, the bank's private banking arm, which handles the finances of 30,000 of the world's richest people.
Mr Safra's death may now mean that many of these individuals, some of which were close personal friends of his, will close their accounts and move their banking relationships elsewhere.
For Sir John, who was said on Friday to be shocked and appalled at the death of his friend, the next few weeks may be equally uncertain.
Although he is a classic British banker of the old school gentlemanly, urbane, unflappable and stiff-upper-lipped Sir John may find himself in the unusual position of having to employ personal bodyguards.The golf-playing banker, who has spent much of his working life in Hong Kong, will have been given the option of employing private security guards.
The British police do not usually provide armed protection for businessmen except in the most extreme circumstances where a specific threat is known to exist.
Mr Safra's body has been returned to his family. Alexander Brug-gmann, a spokesman for the Republic National Bank in Geneva, said Mr Safra would be buried in Jerusalem but he did not yet know when.[Everyone must have assumed that Mr. Safra would get his lifelong wish to be buried in Israel. Again, why did Lily suddenly change her mind and bury Edmond in Switzerland, of all places?]
If Monaco thinks Ted Maher is responsible for Mr. Safra's death, then what are they afraid of? Why won't they allow the overwhelming abundance of exculpatory evidence that exonerates Ted Maher into this so-called "trial?"
It's a simple question, really. And it's a question that begs for an answer.
Think what you like about Ted Maher's innocence or guilt. I cannot declare with 100% certainty that he is completely innocent myself. But how will we ever know if all we're allowed to see is some two-bit, coerced confession written in French? The Monaco police obtained this "confession" only after his wife's passport was "borrowed" for a few hours and then used to threaten his kids with being orphans.
Forget guilt or innocence for a moment; there is a much BIGGER issue at stake here. How can any FReeper condone the fact that a fellow American is not being allowed to defend himself? How could an American (an American who could be you one day) possibly prove his innocence if he isn't allowed to submit all his evidence?
It's not like it's questionable evidence, either.
It's DNA analysis and the "victim's" autopsy report!! How basic is that?!
Before the fire gutted the penthouse, Maher stumbled bleeding from knife wounds into the lobby of Safra's bank building to report the fire. Firefighters, however, were kept from launching a rescue mission for more than an hour after Maher was taken to a hospital because police believed the intruders were still inside.
Who kept the firefighters away from a "deadly" fire for an hour? What kind of a reason is "police believed the intruders were still inside" for not attempting to rescue Mr. Safra?
What will we get next from the authorities in Monaco? My dog ate the evidence?