The setting in the affluent Mediterranean principality of Monaco is perfect for amateur Agatha Christies. The list of potential suspects who might have a motive for killing Safra could fill a mystery writer’s cupboard of villains: the Russian mafia, Arab terrorists, drug cartels and other money launderers, Mossad-trained bodyguards and scheming relatives. And then there’s the man who’s actually in prison and awaiting trial on possible arson or manslaughter charges in Safra’s death: his 43-year-old American nurse, Ted Maher.
With the trial of Maher likely to begin early this fall, none of the evidence gathered thus far by investigating magistrate Patricia Richet indicates a larger conspiracy. What it does suggest strongly is that Safra need not have died. The basic facts are outlined in court documents to which NEWSWEEK has gained access and confirmed by several sources directly involved with the case. They point to a tawdry tragedy in which Monaco’s inept police and fire departments are almost as much to blame for Safra’s death as Maher, the person who admits he set the fire. The upshot: police and firefighters, fearing terrorists or assassins, stood outside the apartment for more than 90 minutes as flames spread and Safra, along with another private nurse on duty, Vivian Torrente, suffocated.
Born in Beirut, Safra established an international financial empire around his Republic National Bank. He had an Israeli passport and close ties to officials there. His bank also had extensive operations in mob-ridden Russia. He had bodyguards to protect him from vengeful Arab assassins or mafia money launderers. But by the late 1990s Safra, who suffered from Parkinson’s disease, was scaling back his empire. He rewrote his will in October 1999, giving roughly 40 percent of his fortune to his wife, Lily, 60 percent to charity and cutting out other family members. The couple spent more and more time in their penthouse on the fifth and sixth floors of Monte Carlo’s Belle Epoque building.
The fatal chain of events began when Maher lit a fire in a trash can, setting off an automatic alarm at 4:49 a.m. At about the same time, Maher told Torrente that he’d been attacked by two intruders with a knife, but had fended them off. He gave her his mobile phone. She took Safra into the dressing room next to his bedroom where they would hide until the police rescued them. At 4:53 a.m., after the injured Maher stumbled from the elevator, the Belle Epoque’s concierge told police there was a “hostage situation: man shot and wounded.” Monaco’s chief prosecutor, Daniel Serdet, says the first policeman arrived on the scene at 5 a.m. The police, however, let no one else into the apartment–including firefighters. Samuel Cohen, Safra’s Israeli head of security, arrived at 5:20. Police handcuffed Cohen when he insisted on going up.
At 6:30, more than 90 minutes after the first alarm, fumes were filling the dressing room. Torrente, communicating by mobile phone, said she was starting to lose consciousness. Safra could be heard coughing in the background. That was the last call. It wasn’t until 21 minutes later that the police radio declared: “There is no longer any danger as regards hostile intruders inside.” The firemen finally were allowed to do their job–but the tragic muddle continued. NEWSWEEK has learned that at least one fireman actually opened the bedroom door, which was not locked, went in, walked around–and walked out again. Yet he never opened the door to the adjacent dressing room where Safra and Torrente were waiting for rescue.
Later, video surveillance cameras showed there were no intruders. And Maher confessed that he had stabbed himself to give credibility to his story that he’d risked his life to save Safra’s. It was all a plot he had hatched to win favor, not to do harm, he said. Although Maher’s wife says this confession was coerced, Maher has never retracted it. Monaco’s authorities denied NEWSWEEK’s requests to interview Maher.
Last week a Monaco appeals court flatly rejected requests, made by lawyers acting on behalf of Safra’s two brothers, for further investigation into the performance of the police and fire departments that morning. The court ruled that no more inquiry was necessary. Why? Because, the judges concluded, their dismal record was plain enough.
