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To: marginmike who wrote (52528)	12/4/1999 9:47:00 PM
From: Jon Koplik	Respond to of 152472

Off topic - the Edmond Safra death story is getting weirder. December 4, 1999 Banker Alive When Firemen Arrived Filed at 1:25 p.m. EDT By The Associated Press MONTE CARLO, Monaco (AP) -- Billionaire banker Edmond Safra was still alive when firefighters arrived at his burning apartment, but he ignored their pleas to come out of a locked bathroom where he then suffocated, Monaco's chief prosecutor said Saturday. Daniel Serdet told reporters that Safra's wife and the firefighters battled through thick smoke to try to save the 67-year-old Lebanese-born businessman who had barricaded himself and his private nurse in the lavatory for safety. ``The firefighters knocked on the door, but Safra thought it was the assailants and refused to come out,' Serdet said, adding that the smoke billowed into the bathroom through the vent of a fire-detection unit. Safra, founder of the Republic National Bank of New York, died early Friday as a result of the fire in his luxury penthouse in this quiet principality. His nurse, Viviane Torrent, an American citizen of Filipino origin, also died. The banker's wife, Lily, and the wife's granddaughter, who had hid in another room after a security alarm sounded, were unharmed. 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. But Serdet said Saturday there wasn't yet evidence to back up the theory that two armed men had burst in. Police earlier in the day studied tapes of video surveillance cameras posted inside and outside Safra's building. The male nurse was being questioned by investigators for a second time Saturday. ``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. But Serdet did not say that the nurse was being treated as a suspect, and it was not clear whether the fire was deliberately set or the result of an accident. Before he died, Safra spoke to his wife twice from the bathroom using his mobile phone, and in one conversation also told her to lock herself away. A bloodstained, 3.2-inch switchblade knife was also found, but Serdet did not say whether fingerprints had been found. The nurse was also being questioned about whether the assailants he had mentioned in his testimony had spoken in French or a foreign language. The billionaire's bodyguard, who was supposed to be in the apartment, was questioned by police on Friday about his absence at the time of the attack. The motive for the attack on Safra, who -- like many Monaco residents -- led a discreet but opulent lifestyle, was not immediately known. 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 metropolitan 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. 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. 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.' Copyright 1999 The New York Times Company