ARCHIVE: Observer, 29 Oct 2000: Edmond Safra article
banana
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The strange case of Edmond Safra
When the billionaire banker Edmond Safra died in an apparently bungled
robbery at his home in Monte Carlo, the initial suspects ranged from the
Russian mafia to the Colombian drug cartels. But then the police arrested
one of Safra's 12 nurses and the strange story became stranger still
Andrew Anthony
Observer
Sunday October 29, 2000
Each night in Monte Carlo, it is said, a recording of predatory birds is
transmitted through hidden loudspeakers in the main square to prevent
sparrows from soiling the famous casino's pristine lawn. And each morning a
platoon of gardeners removes dying petals from the immaculate flowerbeds.
Amid such stainless perfection, a prison could look embarrassingly
conspicuous. The authorities in the world's wealthiest state have dealt
with the problem by locating the local jail on the very extremity of its
tiny landmass. Of the thousands of tour- ists who file past the old fort on
the rocky promontory of Monaco Ville, between the Oceanographic Museum and
a cheesy celebration of the Grimaldi family called the Monte Carlo Story,
very few realise that incarcerated within its walls are the principality's
20 or so prisoners. There are no signboards nor, indeed, any apparent
entrance. The only clues to its true purpose are the bars on the windows
and the battery of security cameras on the roof - hardly an atypical sight
in Monaco.
Among the inmates, most of whom are imprisoned for fraud or other white-
collar crime, is Ted Maher, a 42-year-old former Green Beret in the US
Army. Last December, Maher was arrested following the deaths of billionaire
banker Edmond Safra and his nurse in circumstances that remain oblique and
subject to a multitude of speculative theories. Initially, Maher was not a
suspect. Those who were, suggested one newspaper, 'range from the Russian
mafia to Japanese investors, through drug cartels and Middle Eastern
trading companies'. It seemed that Safra, 67, who was renowned for his
protective shield of Israeli bodyguards, was a man with no shortage of
enemies. And, equally, Maher, a smalltown American who never travelled
beyond US borders in his three years in the army, appeared to be someone
who was a total stranger to both drug cartels and the Moscow mafia.
How he came to be in Monaco was a result of unforeseeable happenstance.
Working at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York, where he
had qualified as a licensed nurse, Maher found an expensive camera which he
promptly returned to its owner. The photographer mentioned the story to an
associate, Safra, who was sufficiently impressed to offer Maher a position
as part of his 12-strong medical team - the banker suffered from
Parkinson's Disease.
The unworldly Maher spoke not a word of French. Safra, a Lebanese Jew with
Brazilian nationality who lived mostly in the south of France, was fluent
in French, English, Italian, Portuguese, Arabic and Hebrew. Maher was a
tall, slender man with an open manner. Safra was short and bald and
enigmatic. Maher had an ongoing property dispute with his next-door
neighbour in upper New York State. Safra owned a vast penthouse in Monaco
and La Leopolda, the magnificent villa in Villefranche built on the estate
that once belonged to Belgium's genocidal King Leopold II. He also
possessed homes in Paris, Geneva, London, New York and Brazil.
In any other circumstances, the closest Maher might have come to Safra
would have been to cash a cheque in one of his banks. But, as it was, Maher
left his wife and three children in Stormville, New York, and his secure
post at Columbia-Presbyterian, and flew to the French Riviera and a $600-a-
day ringside view of the life of one of the world's richest and most
mysterious men.
As far back as 1957, Edmond Safra was named as a drug trafficker in a US
Bureau of Narcotics report. The accusation was later withdrawn, but until
his death Safra was the inspiration for countless unsubstantiated rumours
that linked him to drug, gold and currency trafficking, money laundering
and organised crime.
The Safra family came from the Halabi merchants of northern Lebanon, a
close-knit clan of Sephardic Jewish traders who historically made their
money from financing the camel caravans of the Middle East. Edmond's father
Jacob opened the family bank in 1920, building on the Safras' long
experience in gold and currency exchange. Sephardic tradition maintained
that the family business should be passed on to the oldest son. But such
was his precocious interest in banking that the young Edmond leapfrogged
his elder brother, Elie, to be selected by his father as the prime heir. At
just 16, Edmond went to Milan to learn the banking business and then on to
Brazil, where he set up his first bank at the age of 21.
In contrast to most banks, Safra's was built on deposits rather than loans.
It may be this strategy that originally led some observers to view Safra's
banks as attractive propositions for money launderers. Five years ago, New
York magazine ran an investigation into Safra's Republic National Bank in
which it claimed that the bank 'quickly became known on the street as a
bank that would send an armoured car to pick up large sums from its more
secretive customers'.
In the 80s, Safra and Republic were the targets of a global whispering
campaign. Among the allegations that surfaced in a variety of mostly
obscure publications was the suggestion that he was involved in the Iran-
Contra affair; that he arranged the murder of a security specialist who had
supposedly discovered a link between him and the arms-for-hostages scandal;
that he had double-crossed the Medellin cocaine cartel; that he was a
confrère of mafia legend Mayer Lansky; and that Republic had laundered the
drug-trafficking profits of Panama's General Noriega.
Only the last claim had any basis in established fact, and Republic was
only one of a number of banks that held Noriega's funds. Eventually, Safra
proved in court that the rumours emanated from his corporate rivals,
American Express, which had bought Republic's Swiss parent company, TDB, in
an acrimonious deal in 1983 (Safra regained control in 1988). American
Express was forced to apologise and donate $8m to a number of charities,
including the Anti-Defamation League. For many people in and around the
world of banking, however, Safra's legal victory served only to increase
their suspicions of the secretive Lebanese businessman. In New York and
London it was customary to grin in a knowing fashion whenever Safra's name
was mentioned. Now the grins were that much wider.
Bryan Burrough ascribed the slurs aimed at Safra to anti-Semitism in his
book Vendetta: American Express and the Smearing of Edmond Safra . But if
anti-Semitism alone was the reason for the stories, then why was Safra
singled out and not the innumerable other Jewish bankers operating in high
finance? It would be rather as if Michael Jordan had been selected for
racist abuse on account of being a black player in basketball. Whatever the
true explanation for the attacks, Safra was acutely sensitive to their
effect on his good name. He was determined to sue any publication, however
small, that repeated the libels.
While American Express was waging its smear campaign, American customs
officers were investigating Safra's banks for laundering Colombian drug
funds. No charges were brought. Yet when the news emerged that Safra was
dead, the prime suspects were not embittered former American Express
executives or Colombian drug lords, but the Russian mafia, or mafiya .
Three factors pointed in its direction. First, Republic's dealings with
Russia were well documented. Under licence from the US government, Republic
shipped around $10bn of US currency a year to Russian banks. Although
perfectly legal, the shipments caused no little consternation among some
state agencies. The problem was that many banks in Russia, and up to 50
that Republic was trading currency with, were suspected of being at the
very least unreliable and quite possibly fronts for the mafiya. Referring
to this apparent criminalisation of cash, a source from the Criminal
Investi gation Bureau of New York State Banking Department told New York
magazine: 'To us it was like a sore on Cindy Crawford's face.'
Second, at the time of his death, Safra was engaged in the protracted and
problematic sale of Republic to HSBC. There were various hold-ups, but one
of them was said to be the Russian accounts that were frozen as a result of
Federal investigation into money laundering, which Republic itself prompted
by alerting the authorities to its concerns. Observers speedily concluded
that a short-changed mafiya chief had sought revenge. Some 90 or so bankers
have been killed in Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union. 'What
you have to understand,' Stephen Handelman, an expert on the mafiya and
author of Comrade Criminal , told me, 'is that bankers are different in
Russia. Over 2,000 banks were set up after 1989, most of which have since
collapsed, and many of the people behind them had emerged from the black
market and criminal backgrounds. So often when a banker is killed he may
himself be involved in the mafiya.'
And third, the French Riviera, which enjoys a rich history of Russian
influence dating back to 19th-century aristocrats, had seen a sudden and
ostentatious influx of newly wealthy Russians. Tales of Moscow businessmen
buying yachts and property for cash formed the gossip of sales people from
Cannes up to Menton, who, while often offended, seldom refused the money.
In Nice, the mafiya was said to have bought into the exclusive Marina Baie
des Anges, where the head of one Russian crime gang was arrested with false
papers and fled to Monaco. In the past three years, Monaco has itself
expelled 15 Russians suspected of illegal business practices, including a
former KGB colonel. And some lawyers say that Monaco has now adopted an
unofficial policy of refusing entry to all Russians.
Arnaud Montauibourg, a French MP who led a parliamentary investigation into
the mafiya, thinks the mafiya has already 'penetrated Monaco', laundering
money 'through real estate, the casino and through trusts'. Sitting outside
the Café de Paris in Monte Carlo on a soft autumn evening earlier this
month, watching the hopefuls making their way to the casino, it was not
hard to spot the Russian businessmen. They have little apparent fear of
cultural stereotyping. Thus two men with gold bracelets and neck chains sat
drinking vodka and smoking weighty cigars, largely ignoring their two women
companions whose compliant demeanour, polite laughter and visible stocking
garters made it plain that they were part of the night's entertainment
bill.
It's this kind of egregious behaviour that has placed the Russians, whether
legitimate business people or not, at the centre of a near moral panic
hereabouts. The Russians are coming, is the anxious chorus on the Cte
d'Azur, and everyone assumed they had come for Safra.
At 5am on the morning of 3 December last
year, Ted Maher awoke his boss with news that two masked men had broken
into the belle époque building at 17 Avenue D'Ostende in Monaco. Maher was
bleeding from three stab wounds. Although a former Green Beret, Maher had
served as a medical auxiliary. He had no more experience of combat than he
did of high-style living. He was there to tend his employer, not protect
him. For that, Safra had his Israeli army bodyguards. But not in Monaco. So
safe did he feel in his penthouse next to the renowned Hotel Hermitage,
that he maintained the security team at La Leopolda, 10 miles away.
It was there during the 80s that Safra, under the guidance of his Brazilian
socialite wife, held celebrity-enriched parties of daunting splendour.
Lily, whom Safra married in 1976, had three children from a previous
marriage and was independently a very rich woman. Nevertheless, the
prenuptial agreement she signed was said to have run to 600 pages. It was
she who ensured that names such as Aristotle Onassis and Frank Sinatra were
included on the Safras' guest list. John Fairchild, the arbiter of American
high-society standing, was moved to speak of the couple's 'meteoric rise to
social power'.
But social acceptance had not lessened Safra's near-phobic paranoia. He
always carried blue gemstones to ward off the evil eye, and retained an
abiding fear of curses. He was deeply superstitious about the number five
and was terrified of being kidnapped. So he must have been deeply scared
early that morning when he learned from Maher that the state-of-the-art
security system in the building, which also housed three banks, had been
breached. Immediately, Safra retreated with another of his nurses, 52-year-
old Viviane Torrente, to his steel-reinforced bathroom.
Within minutes a fire broke out. This is how Monaco's assistant prosecutor
Catherine Le Lay described the scene: 'The apartment is immense, and within
it there are two separate wings, one for Mr Safra and one for his wife. Mr
Safra was in his wing, which consisted of three rooms - his bedroom, a
nursing laboratory and a bathroom. With him were two nurses. The police
received a call from the receptionist of the building. She had been alerted
by the male nurse, who had staggered from the apartment which occupies the
fifth and sixth floors, down to the ground floor. He had been injured with
a knife with a six-inch blade.
'The police arrived at the scene extremely quickly and when they arrived
they were un able immediately to access the apartment, which is protected
by steel-reinforced doors. When they did gain entry with the firemen, the
fire had already taken hold in the flat, which was extremely difficult to
bring under control. When the police were finally able to penetrate the
flat, they found Mr Safra dead where he had taken refuge in the bathroom
with his nurse, Viviane Torrente, who also died.
'His wife was not even roused by the drama. It is difficult to convey just
how big this flat is, but I have never seen anything like it. She was
separated by a good distance from her husband and each door was reinforced.
By the time the firemen had mastered the fire, smoke was only beginning to
affect her wing of the flat, which would have rendered her more deeply
unconscious. We still don't know how the attackers got into the flat, or
how they escaped.'
Safra and Torrente died from smoke inhalation. The fumes reached them
through the fire-detection system. With its 500 officers, Monaco is
probably the most intensively policed square mile anywhere on the planet -
the local constabulary likes to boast that it can close down all exit
routes from the principality in minutes. Its border with France is only
notional, but the police always man it. Its streets and buildings are also
the world's most intensively filmed.
Very few square feet remain unrecorded by the ubiquitous security cameras.
But there was no sign of the intruders. The idea that two men could break
into the heavily secured home of one of the world's wealthiest men, cause
his death and leave without trace did not sit well with Monaco's reputation
as a crime-free zone for the super-rich.
The police became convinced that it was an inside job. Within two days of
Safra's death, Maher was arrested. And, shortly afterwards, he told police
that he had stabbed himself and started a fire and that there were no
intruders, masked or otherwise. His actions, he said, were an attempt to
gain his boss's respect. He spoke of not getting along with the head nurse,
a woman named Sonia, and how he wished to circumvent her power by
demonstrating his loyalty to Safra. At a news conference, chief prosecutor
Daniel Serdet quoted from Maher's police statement: 'It was my own dark
ideas which led me to do this.'
This was an extraordinary turnaround. From a story of high-financial
corruption and international gangsterism, it became one of a misguided
approach to job promotion. Police announced Maher's confession on 6
December, the same day that Safra was buried in Geneva. Around 1,000
mourners attended the ceremony at the Hekhal Haness synagogue, including
the Nobel Peace laureate Eli Wiesel, Israel's foreign minister David Levy,
Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan and former United Nations secretary general,
Javier Pérez de Cuéllar. Also, on the same day, the US Federal Reserve
approved the sale of Republic to HSBC Holdings, and four weeks to the day
after Safra's death the $9.85bn deal was completed, netting Safra's heirs
some $2.8bn. Could it really be that strange and that straightforward?
In America, the conspiracy theorists' medium, the internet, has been hot
with indignation. There is much talk of Maher's 'imprisonment as a
scapegoat for Russian money- launderers' and he is referred to as 'prisoner
of war'. 'Please help him,' runs one appeal, 'before he is killed by the
Monaco government or the responsible parties that did commit this crime and
used Ted as a scapegoat.' Much of the stuff is hysterically xenophobic,
virulently right-wing and clearly the work of delusional minds. Of course,
that doesn't mean that Maher isn't a fall guy. However, his defence team
certainly do not see Maher as the victim of a fiendish plot.
Georges Blot, Maher's Monegasque lawyer, has gone on record as saying that
his client started the fire and stabbed himself. 'The first words Ted said
to me when I met him were: "This is horrible. I loved him. I admired him. I
respected him. I don't understand why I did it."'
Maher's family in the US are unimpressed. They say that the internal
security videotapes, which they believe would prove Maher's innocence, have
gone missing (Monaco police say the video system was not working). And
Maher's wife Heidi, argues that her husband's legal defence is compromised
because it is state-appointed. 'The Monaco government is paying Ted's
lawyer, Mr Blot, which is clearly a conflict of interest,' she has said. In
fact, that is common legal practice, and indeed a human right, in most
countries on occasions when the accused cannot afford a lawyer. Yet while
Monaco is not implicated in a cover-up, there is a sense that it is
actively presenting an untroubled face to the world.
This is not the first time that a banker's death has caused a scandal in
the region. Back in 1990, Jean Ferry, an official of the Industrial Bank of
Monaco (BIM), was found dead from a bullet wound in the head. The police
decided it was suicide, but a subsequent investigation found that a client
of Ferry had constructed a large-scale fraud involving BIM. It also
discovered that lax practices encouraging foreign tax evasion were endemic
within the Monaco banking system. The most common method exploited a law
which enabled foreign investors to create 'shell' companies in the names of
Monegasque citizens (for a small payment). It has often been alleged that
the system is abused by organised crime.
Roger Bianchini, a journalist with Nice-Matin , told an author of a book on
the Grimaldis: 'The whole system is well known to the initiated. But when
underground deals begin to surface and scandal breaks through, Prince
Rainier becomes concerned that the image of the principality could be
tarnished.'
As with other wealthy climes, such as Beverly Hills, the very sheen of
Monaco's surface leads the visitor to suspect some form of moral corruption
lurking underneath. The old wedding-cake architecture that survives is
placed in the shade by the huge apartment-block developments that Rainier
green-lighted in the 60s, creating an odd combination of sickly innocence
and brash confidence. Although there is a refreshing sea breeze and the
streets are neurotically clean, the faintest smell of pollution hangs in
the air alongside the sweet fragrance of jasmine. And there is a disturbing
sense that no amount of money will wash it away.
For all its publicity-seeking glamour, Monaco thrives on secrecy. The
government and its institutions, such as the Société des Bains de Mer,
which runs the casino and hotels and much else, and which are all
essentially arms of the Grimaldi empire ruled by Prince Rainier, are
unapologetically opaque. Bankers may be attracted to secrecy, but so are
storytellers. One of the more fanciful ideas doing the rounds has it that
the Grimaldi grip on Monaco includes extensive telephone tapping based on a
word-trigger system. 'If you said something derogatory about a Grimaldi it
would undoubtedly hit the trigger,' suggests one observer.
Against this backdrop of fantasy, any explanation of events provided by
Monaco, the so-called Disneyland Dictatorship, would never be seen as the
whole story. And indeed there are inconsistencies. Even Safra's widow's
lawyer, Marc Bonnant, was concerned to ask that all the evidence be made
available.
'We would like to have all the details of the nurse's confession. Was it
credible and complete, what exactly pushed him to do what he did, how many
fires did he set, are there any inconsistencies in his confession? A
thousand questions come to mind which need answers to make any sense out of
this tragic and absurd death.'
Among those questions, perhaps, are why did Safra remain in the bathroom
even after the police arrived and why did it take two long hours for the
fire brigade to get inside the bathroom? And why is it that Maher is said
to have started only one fire and yet investigators located two separate
origins?
In early official reports it was stated - unambiguously by assistant
prosecutor Le Lay - that Lily Safra did not speak to her husband during his
confinement in the bathroom, that she was asleep. Elsewhere there were
reports that she had spoken to him on a mobile phone. Bonnant told me,
'Edward Safra spoke twice to his wife, to his bodyguard and to the police.'
Then why did he not emerge from the bathroom? Bonnant says that everyone
was still under the impression that two armed intruders were in the
building, which is also why the fire brigade made slow progress.
But given the police presence and his own security guard, Safra must have
been paralysed with fear not to feel confident enough to come out. Who did
he think was after him? Bonnant is quick to scotch any talk of assassins.
'Look, if you want to kill a man, you pay $20,000 and you get the job done
the right way by a professional. The right way is not to hire a nurse to
start a small fire and hope that the police take two hours to get to him.'
An insider on Maher's defence team echoes this point. 'People have told me
they know for sure that Safra was shot with two bullets. Now the defence is
going to see the inside of the building and we've asked for further fire
reports and to look at video film outside the home. It might be that we'll
see two guys in balaclavas on top of the roof, but I don't think so. And
you have to ask, why were there no holes in Ted's clothes where his wounds
were? Did the intruders thoughtfully lift up his shirt before stabbing
him?'
Handelman also dismissed the idea that Russians were behind Safra's death.
'It just wasn't their MO. Not outside Russia. Most people thought Safra was
holding IOUs or money for the mafiya, but they wouldn't have killed him for
that.' But he added: 'You can always be surprised.'
After Maher's confession was made public, people began to ask how Safra had
ever come to employ a man with such evident psychological problems.
Suddenly it was common knowledge that Maher had a prescription-drug problem
- according to Serdet - a history of violence and unstable personality
traits. His colleagues at Columbia-Presbyterian countered these stories and
provided an image of a reliable and motivated worker. 'He was really on top
of things,' said one paediatrician. 'In fact, he was one of the better
nurses I've seen.'
Bonnant has said that Maher was properly vetted through 'in-depth
background checks', as well as being interviewed by Safra himself. 'The
fact that Maher is unstable became apparent to us only after the accident.
Nothing in Maher's files showed the slightest trace of mental instability.'
Perhaps because it wasn't there.
Some newspaper articles quoted a former neighbour who quarrelled with
Maher. 'He was a miserable bastard,' said 70-year- old Leonard Levelle, who
accused Maher of physical assault. According to Maher's defence, Levelle
himself was cautioned a number of times by the police. Much was also made
of Mayer's leaving the Las Vegas police force after only three months. His
defence say he quit because he contracted spinal meningitis.
So was it a bizarre aberration? 'The reality of the situation is not
something Ted can articulate,' say his defence. But the same source
believed Maher was under pressure because his wife wanted him to return
home and he wanted to stay in Monaco.
What even his detractors agree on is that Maher never intended to kill
Safra. 'If he wanted to,' said Serdet, 'he would have had 10,000 chances a
day.' The fire simply got out of hand because he started it in an acrylic
wastepaper basket. However, Maher is currently charged on a count of arson
leading to death, a crime which carries a maximum life sentence.
In his Monte Carlo office, high above the Boulevard des Moulins, Donald
Manasse, an American-Frenchman who is assisting Georges Blot, told me, 'Ted
is not guilty of the crimes as charged and we are seeking a requalification
of the charges.'
Optimistically, he might be looking at four to six years. But that's still
a very severe sentence for what basically amounts to an accident. Bonnant
demonstrated the Safra family's determination to gain what they see as
justice. He told me: 'We want to ensure that the one who caused this will
be properly punished.'
The trial is unlikely to come to court until early next year. The
investigating judge, Patricia Richett is still conducting her inquiry.
Given the profile and importance of Safra, and the sensitivity of the
Monaco authorities, fears have been expressed by those close to Maher that
the investigation might be partial. Manasse was certain that Richett would
not succumb to external pressure from any direction. 'Anyone who would say
she could be influenced by third parties,' he told me, 'has no idea who she
is.'
Maher, it seems, does have one influential supporter himself. Dominic
Dunne, the celebrated Vanity Fair writer and crusader against criminal
injustice, is known to be sympathetic towards his plight. And the
Monegasques have taken due notice. 'When Serdet heard that Dunne was
arriving in Monaco,' a legal source said, 'he was practically saying,
"We've got to get this right, Dominic Dunne is coming to town."'
In the meantime, Maher, the man who wanted to gain attention, is locked up
in a prison that dare not speak its name, removed from his Mediterranean
idyll, but tantalisingly trapped a few feet from the sea. He has no
visitors, save his lawyers and the American consulate representative, and
of course the tourists passing unknowingly by on their way to see a
different Monte Carlo story.
Life in Monaco continues as ever in its own secretive way. On a brilliant
morning with seagulls circling overhead and the roar of the Monaco Kart Cup
ripping around the bay, I stopped outside 17 Avenue D'Ostende. The fire
damage is now mostly repaired, and just to be certain, I asked a policeman
where Monsieur Safra had lived. He looked at me with a thin smile and said,
' Je ne sais pas.' Then he walked away.
After Safra's burial, Eli Wiesel said of the close friend he often called
his brother: 'After all, what remains of a man after his death? It is his
name, his reputation, his honour.' And, a less circumspect man might have
added, his money. Already there is talk of family disputes about where it
will go. And there will continue to be talk about the banker from Beirut.
For if Ted Maher started the fire, there was always smoke around Edmond
Safra.
***END***
--
banana
banana
alt.conspiracy.princess-diana and stamped at '00:19:47' on 'Wed, 20 Dec
2000', banana <banana@REMOVE_THIS.borve.demon.co.uk> writes:
><http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4083074,00.html>
>
>***BEGIN***
>
>The strange case of Edmond Safra
>
>When the billionaire banker Edmond Safra died in an apparently bungled
>robbery at his home in Monte Carlo, the initial suspects ranged from the
>Russian mafia to the Colombian drug cartels. But then the police arrested
>one of Safra's 12 nurses and the strange story became stranger still
>
>Andrew Anthony
>Observer
>
>Sunday October 29, 2000
Another article:
<http://www.usajewish.com/scripts/usaj/paper/Article.asp?ArticleID=936>:
***BEGIN***
THE SAFRAS: LIFE GOES ON, ALL SECRETS SAFELY BURIED
We'll probably never know why Edmond Safra died under such bizarre
circumstances; nor are we going to find out if there was a connection
between his intention to undersell the family assets and his untimely
demise.
Safra name returns to private banking in Geneva
GENEVA (September 26) : The famous Safra name has returned to Geneva's
exclusive world of private banking with a new bank opened by Joseph
Safra, the brother of Lebanese-born banker Edmond Safra who died in a
fire last year. Senior officials at Joseph Safra's new bank, Bank Jacob
Safra, said they opened their offices on Geneva's prestigious Rue du
Rhone last week after receiving approval from Swiss federal banking
authorities on September 18.
Edmond Safra, who was a fixture for decades in Geneva's private banking
community, finalised the sale of his Republic National Bank of New York
to HSBC Holdings for $9.85 billion just before he died in his Monaco
penthouse last December. The new bank was named HSBC Republic, owned by
HSBC Holdings Plc. Bankers say Joseph and Edmond had been estranged
before the latter's death. Edmond Safra died in a fire which gutted his
penthouse after a break-in by two hooded attackers.
Joseph Safra muscled his way back into the Swiss private banking world
after purchasing the tiny Zurich-based Uto Bank last year, renaming it
Bank Jacob Safra after the man who began the Sephardic Jewish family's
banking empire over a century ago. One of the bank's directors in
Geneva, Joe Benhamou, told Reuters that the bank would focus purely on
private banking. He stressed the new bank would not go after Edmond
Safra's old clients in Switzerland, but conceded that the Safra name
would be a major asset for the operation. "
(Business Recorder)
***END***
--
banana
em...@my-deja.com
banana <banana@REMOVE_THIS.borve.demon.co.uk>
wrote:
>
<http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/Archive/Articl
station are not T Maher's at all. The ones they
showed to his wife were not the clothes that TM
ever wore and not appropriate for the job - they
were a jump suit and not a speck of blood on them.
TM was not assigned to work that nite - pencilled
in at last moment. He was attacked and then he
helped Safra and Vivian to bathroom and left his
own cell phone with them - no one would do that
if they were going to do something wrong. He
started a candle in a wastebasket - no one that
is intelligent would state that that fire in a
wastebasket did that kind of damage. Vivian died
of a broken neck. Exhume the body - it probably
is someone else. They took Safra out of there
and probably killed him someplace else. That is
why he is buried in Geneva instead of Jerusalem.
Ted's lawyers are more prosecuting than
defending - who ever heard of a lawyer defending
a person, make statements like Blot and Manasse?
They have been threatened or maybe they are being
paid to make Ted look like the one that did it.
Ted Maher did not do it and there is proof that
he did not do it but no one will hear it because
he is not allowed to talk and his lawyers are
prosecuting him. More will come out in Dunne's
story. More people from Monaco are coming out of
Monaco and talking. Why is Sonja being paid
$100,000 from Mrs. Safra and who is paying for
her apt on Central Park in NYC? It may be an
inside job but it was not Ted - they used him.
He was due to go home the next week and there is
proof of that. This is a huge cover-up but it
will come out and Monaco will have some
explaining of keeping an innocent man in prison
over a year knowing there was evidence to prove
his innocense.
Sent via Deja.com
http://www.deja.com/
phild...@my-deja.com
by Phil Dragoo
Ted Maher is not responsible for Edmond Safra's death. Yet Monaco has held
him for 400 days today, January 7, 2001, without trial, while suppressing an
array of exculpatory evidence, including, but not limited to, the fire
report, the police emergency tape (present for December 2 and 4, 1999, but
not December 3), the security video of the penthouse's newly upgraded system,
the cellular telephone records, the autopsy and forensic reports, the record
of interrogation and release of two suspects, the cause for the exceptional
and unacceptable delay in response by police and fire, and the cause for
their inability to breech a door, the cause for Lily's dismissal of Shmule
Cohen and the crack Israeli-trained security team, the cause for Lily's
last-minute pencilling in of Ted Maher as duty nurse, the cause for Shmule
Cohen reappearing on-scene, yet without proper keys and identification.
Lily Safra is now the world's richest woman having inherited Edmond's
bllions, yet she must retain the billion-dollar public relations firm of
Rubenstein, and the attorney Stanley S. Arkin, defender of the couple from
Russia involved in extensive money-laundering investigations. Lily Safra
retains Stanley S. Arkin, defender of Konstantin Kagalovsky and Natasha
Kagalovsky, alleged Russian money launderers, he of Menatep, she of BONY.
Safra's Republic Bank laundered $4.8 billion in Russian IMF loans per Geneva
chief prosecutor who says Safra murdered for cooperating with FBI in matter.
Not my allegation, but that of the chief prosecutor.
The lives of Ted Maher's lawyer Donald Manasse and the famous investigative
free-lance writer Dominick Dunne have been threatened regarding their efforts
to uncover the truth in this case. Ted's other attorney Georges Blot was
recently hospitalized, thus delaying Ted's appeal a month. Dateline NBC
delayed its coverage of the case until after the presidential election, and
has now removed the transcript from its website.
The hospital drug and alcohol tests on Ted Maher were negative, yet
prosecutor Daniel Serdet has created an elaborate hoax to frame Ted. The
Monaco police extorted a false confession (in French, which Ted does not
read, write or speak), after three days of four-point restraint,
catheterization, sleep deprivation, interrogation, and the outrageous threat
on the safety and freedom of Ted's wife, mother to their three children.
There is more, and a start would be a visit to http://www.tedmaher.com as
well as a simple inquiry to me, Phil Dragoo, at phild...@att.net .
Today's New York Daily News page 22 Deborah Mitchell column carries a story
on Ted and the case. Vanity Fair December 2000 carries an extensive and
fascinating Dominick Dunne story on the case. The Serdet hoax has heretofore
dominated the world press including Anthony Edwards. But then the Magic
Bullet still has its fairy-believers.
An innocent man, loving father, loyal husband, honorable Green Beret veteran,
and caring and highly-regarded health professional is wrongly imprisoned.
Chairman Ben Gilman of the House International Relations Committee together
with Ted's Congresswoman Sue Kelly wrote Prince Rainier III on Ted's behalf.
There will be justice. Your participation is welcome.
Phil Dragoo
phild...@att.net
http://www.tedmaher.com
In article <PG6qIbAjs$P6E...@borve.demon.co.uk>,
banana <banana@REMOVE_THIS.borve.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> <http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4083074,00.html>
>
> ***BEGIN***
>
> The strange case of Edmond Safra
>
> When the billionaire banker Edmond Safra died in an apparently bungled
> robbery at his home in Monte Carlo, the initial suspects ranged from the
> Russian mafia to the Colombian drug cartels. But then the police arrested
> one of Safra's 12 nurses and the strange story became stranger still
>
> Andrew Anthony
> Observer
>
> Sunday October 29, 2000
>
GODS...@home.com
Hi Phil,
Interesting and informative post. Thanks.
My suggestion is to keep us informed from time to time.
You probably realize that for any of us individuals to
force our will on the world is something relative to
the possible effect of a gnat in a hurricane.
In the Diana case after three years we have been able
to obtain almost no official documentation. I realize
in your concern there is a live person in custody which
adds some vs ours with the deceased.
Alvin
<a href="http://members.home.com/godsbrain">G.O.D.S.B.R.A.I.N.</a><br>
On Mon, 08 Jan 2001 03:35:43 GMT, phild...@my-deja.com wrote:
>Path: news1.frmt1.sfba.home.com!newshub3.home.com!newshub1.rdc1.sfba.home.com!a-newshub1.rdc1.sfba.home.com!newshub2.rdc1.sfba.home.com!news.home.com!news-peer.gip.net!news.gsl.net!gip.net!news.maxwell.syr.edu!nntp2.deja.com!nnrp1.deja.com!not-for-mail
>From: phild...@my-deja.com
>Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy.princess-diana
>Subject: Re: ARCHIVE: Observer, 29 Oct 2000: Edmond Safra article
>Date: Mon, 08 Jan 2001 03:35:43 GMT
>Organization: Deja.com
>Lines: 84
>Message-ID: <93bcif$lpg$1...@nnrp1.deja.com>
>References: <PG6qIbAjs$P6E...@borve.demon.co.uk>
>NNTP-Posting-Host: 12.74.0.175
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<a href="http://members.home.com/godsbrain">G.O.D.S.B.R.A.I.N.</a><br>
Wilf
GODS...@HOME.COM,GODS...@AOL.COM wrote:
> </html>
>
> Hi Phil,
>
> Interesting and informative post. Thanks.
>
> My suggestion is to keep us informed from time to time.
> You probably realize that for any of us individuals to
> force our will on the world is something relative to
> the possible effect of a gnat in a hurricane.
>
> In the Diana case after three years we have been able
> to obtain almost no official documentation.
And why should you be able to obtain any "Official documentation"?
Are you someone important in a simple case of drunk driving resulting
in death?
What "official documentation" do you want to obtain?
snip
--
Email to me may be deleted unread, forwarded to
Usenet, twisted, distorted and changed, or posted
on a Web site. If you do not want this to
possibly happen to your email sent to me, do not
send me any.
GODS...@home.com
On Mon, 8 Jan 2001 00:24:13 -0800, Mail Delivery Subsystem
<MAILER...@mailrecv10.bigmailbox.com> wrote:
>The original message was received at Mon, 8 Jan 2001 00:24:08 -0800
>from sourcenat1.bigmailbox.com [209.132.220.250]
>
> ----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----
><phild...@my-deja.com>
> (reason: addressee unknown)
>
> ----- Transcript of session follows -----
>hipmailer[19876]: Invalid User: phildragoo my-deja.com
>550 5.1.1 <phild...@my-deja.com>... User unknown
On Mon, 08 Jan 2001 03:35:43 GMT, phild...@my-deja.com wrote:
>Path: news1.frmt1.sfba.home.com!newshub3.home.com!newshub1.rdc1.sfba.home.com!a-newshub1.rdc1.sfba.home.com!newshub2.rdc1.sfba.home.com!news.home.com!news-peer.gip.net!news.gsl.net!gip.net!news.maxwell.syr.edu!nntp2.deja.com!nnrp1.deja.com!not-for-mail
>From: phild...@my-deja.com
>Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy.princess-diana
>Subject: Re: ARCHIVE: Observer, 29 Oct 2000: Edmond Safra article
>Date: Mon, 08 Jan 2001 03:35:43 GMT
>Organization: Deja.com
>Lines: 84
>Message-ID: <93bcif$lpg$1...@nnrp1.deja.com>
>References: <PG6qIbAjs$P6E...@borve.demon.co.uk>
>NNTP-Posting-Host: 12.74.0.175
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>
<a href="http://members.home.com/godsbrain">G.O.D.S.B.R.A.I.N.</a><br>
banana
alt.conspiracy.princess-diana and stamped at '21:16:48' on 'Mon, 8 Jan
2001', Wilf <bc3...@my-deja.com> writes:
>In article <smli5t8272vta8h4g...@4ax.com>,
> GODS...@HOME.COM,GODS...@AOL.COM wrote:
>> </html>
<snip>
>What "official documentation" do you want to obtain?
The 7000-page report of the Stephan investigation would be nice.
--
banana
banana
alt.conspiracy.princess-diana and stamped at '03:35:43' on 'Mon, 8 Jan
2001', phild...@my-deja.com writes:
>TED MAHER: INNOCENT MAN IN MONACO PRISON 400 DAYS TODAY
>
>by Phil Dragoo
>
>Ted Maher is not responsible for Edmond Safra's death. Yet Monaco has held
>him for 400 days today, January 7, 2001, without trial, while suppressing an
>array of exculpatory evidence, including, but not limited to, the fire
>report, the police emergency tape (present for December 2 and 4, 1999, but
>not December 3), the security video of the penthouse's newly upgraded system,
>the cellular telephone records, the autopsy and forensic reports, the record
>of interrogation and release of two suspects, the cause for the exceptional
>and unacceptable delay in response by police and fire, and the cause for
>their inability to breech a door, the cause for Lily's dismissal of Shmule
>Cohen and the crack Israeli-trained security team, the cause for Lily's
>last-minute pencilling in of Ted Maher as duty nurse, the cause for Shmule
>Cohen reappearing on-scene, yet without proper keys and identification.
<snip>
>Today's New York Daily News page 22 Deborah Mitchell column carries a story
>on Ted and the case. Vanity Fair December 2000 carries an extensive and
>fascinating Dominick Dunne story on the case. The Serdet hoax has heretofore
>dominated the world press including Anthony Edwards. But then the Magic
>Bullet still has its fairy-believers.
As does the 'theory' that Robert Maxwell committed suicide. A case not
without parallels to Safra's, although no 'patsy' in the former.
A huge amount of the IMF money to Russia was laundered through the
Channel Islands with SIS help. As in, tens, maybe hundreds of billions
of dollars.
>An innocent man, loving father, loyal husband, honorable Green Beret veteran,
>and caring and highly-regarded health professional is wrongly imprisoned.
>Chairman Ben Gilman of the House International Relations Committee together
>with Ted's Congresswoman Sue Kelly wrote Prince Rainier III on Ted's behalf.
>There will be justice. Your participation is welcome.
>
>Phil Dragoo
>phild...@att.net
>http://www.tedmaher.com
--
banana
GODS...@home.com
On Fri, 12 Jan 2001 01:30:28 +0000, banana
<banana@REMOVE_THIS.borve.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>Path: news1.frmt1.sfba.home.com!newshub3.home.com!newshub1.rdc1.sfba.home.com!a-newshub1.rdc1.sfba.home.com!newshub2.rdc1.sfba.home.com!newshub2.home.com!news.home.com!dispose.news.demon.net!demon!news.demon.co.uk!demon!borve.demon.co.uk!banana
>From: banana <banana@REMOVE_THIS.borve.demon.co.uk>
>Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy.princess-diana
>Subject: Re: Di: Observer, 29 Oct 2000: Edmond Safra article
>Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2001 01:30:28 +0000
>Message-ID: <CsnJS8B0...@borve.demon.co.uk>
>References: <PG6qIbAjs$P6E...@borve.demon.co.uk> <93bcif$lpg$1...@nnrp1.deja.com>
> <smli5t8272vta8h4g...@4ax.com> <93danm$9gs$1...@nnrp1.deja.com>
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Put on CD(s) and uploaded once a year or so to alt.binaries.cd.image
>
>--
>banana
GODS...@home.com
I bought CD blanks for Xmas for $0.19 @
Thus a ten CD set DIY at home would cost $1.90
If the 7000 page report were put on CD and then
posted to alt.binaries.cd.image
AOL's Virtual Art Collection is a complete art history course on 10
multimedia CD-ROMs!
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art and architecture, AOL's Virtual Art Collection lets you study
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Treat yourself and your family to this fascinating and fulfilling
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On Fri, 12 Jan 2001 05:04:43 GMT, GODS...@HOME.COM wrote:
>Path: news1.frmt1.sfba.home.com!newshub3.home.com!newshub1.rdc1.sfba.home.com!a-newshub1.rdc1.sfba.home.com!newshub2.rdc1.sfba.home.com!news.home.com!news1.frmt1.sfba.home.com.POSTED!not-for-mail
>From: GODS...@HOME.COM
>Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy.princess-diana
>Subject: Di: The 7000-page report of the Stephan investigation would be nice. On CD Uploaded to alt.binaries.cd.image Observer, 29 Oct 2000: Edmond Safra article
>Organization: <a href="http://members.home.com/godsbrain">G.O.D.S.B.R.A.I.N.</a><br>
>Reply-To: GODS...@HOME.COM,GODS...@AOL.COM
>Message-ID: <jq3t5tgsuvmm5nb8a...@4ax.com>
>References: <PG6qIbAjs$P6E...@borve.demon.co.uk> <93bcif$lpg$1...@nnrp1.deja.com> <smli5t8272vta8h4g...@4ax.com> <93danm$9gs$1...@nnrp1.deja.com> <CsnJS8B0...@borve.demon.co.uk>
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