Safra (banking billionaire) Slaying--May be an Inside Job
Maggie
New twist in death
of billionaire banker Authorities say there’s no evidence
that intruders started fatal Monaco fire
ASSOCIATED PRESS MONTE CARLO, Monaco, Dec. 4 — Police analyzed video from
surveillance cameras at the building where billionaire Edmond Safra died, but
authorities said there wasnít yet evidence to back up the theory that intruders
broke in and set a fatal fire.
ëThere is nothing else for the time being that backs up this version that two
men broke in.í
— DANIEL SERDET
Monaco prosecutor SAFRA, A 67-year-old Lebanese businessman and
founder of the Republic National Bank of New York, suffocated in the pre-dawn
blaze. A male nurse said the fire was set Friday by two knife-wielding, hooded
intruders who burst into the luxury penthouse.
But Monaco’s chief prosecutor, Daniel Serdet, said today that Safra was
still alive when firefighters arrived at his burning apartment, and ignored
their pleas to come out of a locked bathroom, where he then suffocated.
Another nurse, Viviane Torrent, an American citizen of Filipino origin,
also died in the bathroom.
Safra’s male nurse received two knife wounds in his stomach and thigh,
and told the police it had been during a scuffle with two hooded men with
knives who had burst into the apartment, triggering the alarm.
Billionaire banker Edmond Safra was killed in a fire that gutted his penthouse
apartment in Monaco.
But Serdet said there wasn’t yet evidence to back up the theory that
two armed men had burst in. Police studied tapes of video surveillance cameras
posted inside and outside Safra’s building. And a bloodstained, 3.2 inch
switchblade knife was also found, but Serdet said nothing of fingerprints.
The male nurse was being questioned by investigators for a second time
today.
“There is nothing else for the time being that backs up this version
that two men broke in,” Serdet said, adding that any assailant would have
“needed a key and a detailed knowledge of the apartment.” The fire began in a
waste basket inside the apartment, he said.
UNWELCOME PUBLICITY
Safra’s death gave the quiet Riviera principality a burst of unwelcome
publicity.
Local residents, renowned for fiercely protecting their privacy, contest
Monaco’s image as a haven for high rollers who gamble away fortunes of
questionable origin in the city’s 19th-century gilded casino. An old saying
describes Monaco as “a sunny place for shady people.”
The billionaire’s bodyguard, who was supposed to be in the apartment,
was questioned by police Friday night about his absence at the time of the
attack, Monaco’s chief prosecutor Daniel Serdet said.
Police were analyzing video cameras inside and outside the building
where Safra died.
The banker’s wife, Lily, and the wife’s granddaughter, who had hid in
another room after a security alarm sounded, were unharmed.
The motive for the alleged attack on Safra, who like many Monaco
residents led a discreet but opulent lifestyle, was not immediately known. HSBC
Holdings plc (HBC)
price change
$67.13 +0.688
Republic New York Corporation (RNB)
price change
$70.38 -1.063
Data: MSN MoneyCentral Investor and S&P Comstock
Forbes magazine this year listed Safra as one of the world’s wealthiest
men. The attack came during the final stages of the purchase of Republic Bank
by London-based HSBC Bank.
The Republic Bank has some 80 branches in the New York area, making it
the No. 3 branch network in the metro region behind Citigroup and Chase
Manhattan.
However, it had fallen on hard times in recent years, suffering heavy
losses during the Latin American banking crisis in the 1980s and during the
Russian economic meltdown that began in 1998.
NEAR ROYAL PALACE
The building where Safra lived is a short walk from the royal palace. It
is also home to branches of the Republic National Bank of New York, the French
bank Paribas and several other financial institutions.
Monaco, once home to the late Princess Grace and smaller than New York’s
Central Park, celebrated the 700th year of the royal House of Grimaldi in 1997.
Overlooking the Mediterranean, it has about 50 banks and 80 real estate
agencies. No one, except for French citizens who arrived after 1957, pays
income tax.
The son of a wealthy Jewish banking family, Safra was born in Beirut,
Lebanon, in 1932. He left school at 16 to enter the banking business.
Anti-Jewish riots in Beirut following the creation of the state of Israel in
1948 forced the Safras family to leave Lebanon for Brazil.
Maggie
"A lot of people mistake a short memory for a clear conscience."--Doug Larson
Patty
After a day of interviews with Safra's family and staff, Serdet would
not rule out mafia involvement. But police have established that
whoever was responsible for the blaze is likely to have had inside help
from Safra's staff. There was no sign of a break-in and Serdet said the
intruders must have had keys.
According to one British businessman who knew Safra well, the
billionaire's family believe he was murdered by a mafia hit squad as a
warning to the staff of his New York-based bank, Republic National, not
to co-operate with an American government money-laundering
investigation.
"They believe someone decided to send a message to the bank not to co-
operate. What better way do you do that than to take out the top man?"
said the businessman.
snip
The identity and motive of the intruders remained a mystery last night,
but Moscow sources pointed out that the case bore few of the hallmarks
of a professional assassination.
Last night one of Safra's closest friends dismissed the mafia
theory. "There's not one in a million chance," said Jacques Tawil, a
Monte Carlo neighbour who had interrupted a holiday to fly home. "This
man had no enemies."
But Serdet confirmed that Safra's office was in contact with the FBI
and that the possibility of an attempted mafia hit had not been
excluded.
snip
Police yesterday re-interviewed the sole witness to the attempted break-
in, an American male nurse who raised the alarm after being stabbed in
the thigh and abdomen by a hooded man wielding a knife. The nurse, who
is recovering in Princess Grace hospital, was employed six months ago
by Safra, 67, who suffered from Parkinson's disease.
According to Serdet, the nurse told police he was surprised shortly
before 5am on Friday by two men who had broken into the building and
made their way to a room that serves as a nursing station next to the
Safra penthouse.
Injured after a struggle, the nurse staggered down the main staircase
in the six-storey building and raised the alarm with security guards
below.
By the time police arrived a few minutes later, flames were spreading
under the gabled building's copper-clad roof. Smoke was pouring through
the penthouse, which has 10,000 sq ft of living space with a huge roof
terrace and occupies the top two floors.
Safra's elaborate security system of armoured metal window shutters and
bullet-proof glass prevented firemen from reaching the top floor
bathroom where the billionaire had taken refuge. One fireman said
yesterday that Safra might have been saved had his security precautions
had not been so effective.
It took more than two hours to strip away the red-hot copper roofing
and break through the ceilings below. Not until 7.15am did firemen
eventually find the two smoke-blackened bodies; postmortem examinations
later confirmed that both died of suffocation.
Serdet acknowledged that the case raised many troubling questions that
his investigators could not yet answer. "We don't know how these men
got there, and we don't know how they left," he said. "We don't know
how the fire spread so fast, or what was used to start it."
Police were busy scrutinising film from the many security cameras that
monitor Monaco's streets. They were also hoping that Safra's wife Lily,
who was a wealthy Brazilian widow when he married her in Geneva in
1976, might be able to provide further details.
snip
Several Monaco residents commented that no local thief would have
attempted to break into a building that was not only monitored by
security cameras, but which also had security guards permanently on
duty in bank offices on the lower floors.
snip
Sources in Moscow reacted with scepticism. Mafia contract killings
almost always involve the use of automatic weapons and are rarely
carried out inside the home of the victim, especially when, as in
Safra's case, armed guards are on duty nearby. The billionaire also
employed his own bodyguard, whose absence during the fire has not yet
been explained.
However, Moscow sources said Safra was plainly concerned about his
safety in Russia. During his last visit a year ago, he travelled to a
meeting with a Russian oligarch in a fleet of bulletproof cars crammed
with dozens of heavily armed bodyguards who were equipped with their
own metal detectors.
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
Patty
Ministry of Defense Checking Whether Safra’s Bodyguards Had License to
Operate Abroad
By Dror Marom
The Ministry of Defense’s export license department is checking whether
banker Edmond Safra, who died in a fire in Monaco last week, had a
Ministry license to provide security services overseas, "Globes" has
learnt.
Set up in 1985, Safra’s security team is made up of former members of
Israel Defense Force elite units and the General Security Service. The
11-member team is headed by Shmuel Cohen and Ido Shaham, an officer
(res.) in an elite unit.
Meir Shalit, the Ministry of Defense official in charge of export
licenses, today said that following the report on Safra’s death, he
started checking whether the Israeli bodyguards had been operating in
coordination with the Ministry of Defense.
It is estimated that the Israeli bodyguards were employed by a Swiss-
registered company, which arranged their sojourn in France as tourists.
At the mid-1990s, the French government changed the regulations
applying to foreign security personnel operating on French territory,
and forbade them to carry weapons.
Edmond Safra was one of the most heavily guarded members of the entire
Safra family.
Published by Israel's Business Arena December 5, 1999
Patty
Roots
Safra's whole life, it seemed, was shrouded in myth. Throughout his
remarkable career, it seemed, he was torn between the conflicting
societies of old-world and Western banking processes.
A Sephardic Jew, Safra was descended from a long history of Syrian
bankers, who at one time handled the financing for much of the camel
caravan trade under the old Ottoman Empire.
Gold trading had become another centuries-old family enterprise. As a
matter of fact, "Safra" is the Arabic word for yellow.
Safra was a true global businessman. Though born in Beirut, he held a
Brazilian passport and divided his time between apartments in Geneva
and Paris and his castle-like villa on the French Riviera.
The house, called Le Leopolda, was once the summer residence of the
King of Belgium.
Banking
Safra became better known in the U.S. after he became involved with
American Express Co. (AXP: news, msgs).
In the early 1980s, American Express' then-chairman James Robinson III
expanded the credit card giant's enterprises to encompass such new
businesses as international banking and broaden the audience for its
card and financial-securities businesses.
Safra, as a respected figure in European banking, was tapped as a prime
entree to the wealthy European market of institutions and individuals.
Plus, Safra was a close friend and mentor of Peter Cohen, then the head
of the American Express brokerage unit, Shearson. In 1983, American
Express acquired Safra's Trade Development Bank
Whether Safra was loved or loathed at American Express, he carried such
a regal presence that his colleagues held him in awe.
"You had the feeling you were dealing with God," Harry Freeman, at the
time an American Express executive, said of Safra in the 1992
book, "House of Cards: Inside the Troubled Empire of American Express,"
co-authored by this reporter.
It quickly became apparent that Safra, however, didn't fit in at the
heavily bureaucratic American Express. The way the New York-based
company conducted its routine business at many levels irked him. He
didn't approve, for example, when the aggressive marketing company
pushed its direct-mail programs on Safra's secretive European friends.
Safra's associates, unaccustomed to American Express' marketing
machine, complained to him that his new friends at the charge-card
behemoth were invading their privacy. Their anger fueled Safra's own
displeasure with his new arrangement.
Safra was such a proud man that, the book said, he once refused to
board an American Express Gulfstream II that was dispatched to
transport him to New York from his home in Geneva. "Safra felt slighted
because he knew AmEx had a newer Gulfstream III model in its air
force," according to "House of Cards."
Safra, who had joined American Express' board and had become one of its
largest shareholders, parted company with the company only a few years
after joining forces with it.
The parting proved acrimonious.The charge-card company fretted that
Safra would soon try to introduce a bank designed to compete against
the one he had sold to American Express. After he left American
Express' universe, newspapers from South America to Europe smeared
Safra and somehow connected him to illegal activities to weaken his
reputation with prospective clients.
When it was suspected that American Express operatives had become
connected to the damaging publicity, the company agreed in 1989 to pay
$8 million to Safra and issue a public apology.
GLC1173
>Police analyzed video from
>surveillance cameras at the building where >billionaire Edmond Safra died, but
>authorities said there wasnít yet evidence >to back up the theory that
>intruders
>broke in and set a fatal fire.
Yesterday, the New York Post said that while Safra had a whole team of
heavily-armed bodyguards covering his mansion - and usually one with him at all
times at the apartment, the one that usually covered him was gone at the time.
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Maggie
>Excerpt From the Sunday London Times:
>
>After a day of interviews with Safra's family and staff, Serdet would
>not rule out mafia involvement. But police have established that
>whoever was responsible for the blaze is likely to have had inside help
>from Safra's staff. There was no sign of a break-in and Serdet said the
>intruders must have had keys.
>
>According to one British businessman who knew Safra well, the
>billionaire's family believe he was murdered by a mafia hit squad as a
>warning to the staff of his New York-based bank, Republic National, not
>to co-operate with an American government money-laundering
>investigation.
>
>"They believe someone decided to send a message to the bank not to co-
>operate. What better way do you do that than to take out the top man?"
>said the businessman.
***LOL. Now the mafia is killing people by starting fires in wastebaskets and
counting on the victims being too stupid to open the door when the police come
to rescue them? Somehow I don't think this method of making a hit is going to
catch on the way cement shoes and a bullet through the head did in the past.
My money's on the household help.
Maggie
>> My money's on the household help.
>>
>> Maggie
>
>My money is on the bodyguard being involved.
>
>Michael
***Yeah. Bodyguard and nurse, I'd say.