December 4, 1999
Bank Magnate Killed in Fire Laid to Intruders in Monaco
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Related Articles Edmond J. Safra, Banker and Philanthropist (Dec. 4, 1999) Safra's Death Not Expected to Delay Big Bank Sale (Dec. 4, 1999) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----
By SUZANNE DALEY MONTE CARLO -- Edmond J. Safra, a multibillionaire who built a banking empire that specialized in catering to the very rich, suffocated in a predawn fire on Friday in his luxury duplex penthouse here on the Riviera, and the local authorities said the fire had been set by two hooded intruders. Safra and a nurse, Viviane Torrent, both died of smoke inhalation while hiding in a bathroom, the chief prosecutor of Monaco, Daniel Serdet, said at a news conference on Friday. He said the intruders had escaped and were being sought.
Safra's wife, Lily, and her granddaughter hid in another room and were unharmed. Another nurse, who called the police, received two minor knife wounds in his leg and stomach during a scuffle with the intruders, Serdet said.
Officials also reported that the sophisticated security system in Safra's building sent an alert to the local police about 5:30 a.m.
The banker's bodyguard, who was apparently scheduled to be in the apartment, was being questioned by the police on Friday night about his absence at the time of the attack.
Safra's death stunned the rarefied world of international investors and wealthy clients where he has been a prominent figure for more than 30 years. The 67-year-old Lebanese-born businessman was the founder of the Republic National Bank of New York.
The shock over his death was magnified by the timing: just a few weeks ago, Safra, who was planning to retire, had completed a long-delayed deal to sell his businesses for $9.9 billion to HSBC Holdings, the largest bank in Britain.
The child of a long line of bankers, Safra had no formal training in the business but built one of the world's biggest banking companies, one known for catering to the most affluent clients.
Safra, who shunned publicity, had homes in Paris, Geneva and New York, but he spent most of his time in this glittering Mediterranean enclave, which is often used as a tax haven by the very rich.
Forbes magazine this year listed Safra as one of the world's top billionaires -- No. 199. He was believed to control personally more than $2.5 billion.
Much about the attack remained unclear, including possible motives.
Serdet said the police would try to identify the nature of the "extreme violence" of the blaze and would analyze film from video cameras inside and outside Safra's building, a six-story Belle Époque edifice on one of Monte Carlo's most gracious streets, near the Monte Carlo Casino.
"We know nothing at this hour of how the attackers got in and out," he said.
The two assailants, apparently unable to reach Safra, set the fire outside the apartment, and it spread through the roof of the building.
"For reasons as yet unknown, a fire broke out on the outside of his split-level apartment on the top floor and then spread through the roof," the Monaco statement said.
It took firefighters about three hours to extinguish the fire, which left the building's domed roof a twisted mass of broken beams and melted copper sheeting.
Throughout the day on Friday, traffic was stopped leading in and out of Monaco as the police hunted for the attackers, and cars were rerouted away from the site of the fire on d'Ostende Avenue.
Violent crime is rare in this playground for the jet set, best known for its casinos, its annual Formula One Grand Prix, its palm-shaded promenades along the sea and the Grimaldis, the Monaco royal family whose highs and lows are a favorite of the celebrity press.
The building where Safra lived is not far from the royal palace, which sits atop a cliff overlooking the harbor. The lower floors of his building were not apartments but offices for branches of the Republic National Bank of New York, the French bank Paribas and several other financial institutions.
Safra, who suffered from Parkinson's disease, had been building a worldwide financial empire for more than 30 years and was planning his retirement.
The son of a wealthy Jewish banking family that had helped finance Mediterranean commerce under the Ottoman Empire, he was born in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1932. By the time he was 16, he had left school and was working for his father's bank.
Facing anti-Jewish riots in Beirut after the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, the Safras decided to leave Lebanon for Brazil, where the family founded one of the country's biggest banks.
He founded Republic National in 1966. Unlike other institutions, the bank focused on retail banking and concentrated on gaining deposits, not making loans. The bank was the first to give away televisions and home appliances to draw new deposits.
Republic bank has 80 branches in the New York area, making it the No. 3 branch network in the metropolitan region behind Citigroup and Chase Manhattan. It also has eight branches in Florida.
Safra became increasingly religious in his later years, wearing a skullcap at all times and refusing to work on the sabbath. At meetings he often followed the Middle Eastern tradition of serving food and sometimes recited a brief prayer.
Safra's family name is one of the most recognizable for Sephardic Jews in the eastern United States. Community buildings, synagogues and schools and other educational programs from Massachusetts to Florida, have been named after Edmond Safra or his father, Jacob E. Safra, in large part because of Edmond Safra's financial contributions to those and other causes.
In Manhattan, the institute of Sephardic studies at Yeshiva University, one of the largest such undergraduate centers in the United States, is named after his father.