Safra - "The Nurse Did IT"!! - National Post:
Tuesday, December 07, 1999
Safra case: The nurse did it
Wanted to improve standing with boss
Paul Waldie and Marina Jimenez, with files from Kate Jennison
National Post
Edmond Safra, the billionaire banker, was accidentally killed by one of his nurses who was trying to win his favour by saving him from a staged break-in, police said yesterday.
Theodore Maher, an American nurse, told police he lit a fire in a garbage can in Mr. Safra's luxury penthouse in Monaco and then stabbed himself to make it look like an attack by intruders.
"He wanted to seem a hero in the eyes of Mr. Safra," Daniel Serdet, a prosecutor, said in an interview from Monaco.
Mr. Safra, 67, was one of the world's richest men and was about to receive $3-billion (all figures US) from the sale of Republic New York Corp., which he founded. He and another nurse died of asphyxiation Friday as they cowered in a bathroom. Mr. Safra was alive when firefighters reached the suite, but police said he was too afraid to come out.
At the time, Mr. Maher told police that two masked men wielding knives had broken into the 20-room suite, which is surrounded by tight security. There was speculation the attack was by Russian mobsters in retaliation for Republic tipping police to a $7-billion money laundering operation.
But yesterday, Mr. Maher admitted he set the fire and then stabbed himself in the stomach and thigh. He said he was a heavy drug user and that he had been depressed over a dispute with Mr. Safra's chief nurse, who was identified only as Sonia. Mr. Safra had eight nurses and the dispute involved working conditions and Mr. Maher's apparent jealousy of his colleagues, police said.
Mr. Maher "did all of this to draw attention to himself so that he would be favourably regarded by Mr. Safra and also because he was in a state of misanthropy with the chief nurse," Mr. Serdet said.
"Mr. Maher said that he's had black ideas for some time and that he used a lot of tranquilizers and prescription drugs to calm his nerves."
Mr. Serdet added that police found a large quantity of tranquilizers in Mr. Maher's belongings.
Mr. Maher, 41, has been charged with arson and causing the death of two people. He did not intend to kill Mr. Safra, Mr. Maher added. "It is almost certain that this act was committed by Mr. Maher alone for personal reasons and there were no commandos or mobsters."
Sources said Mr. Maher was also a gambler and that he was upset over a big loss at a casino the night before the fire.
Mr. Maher, reportedly a former Green Beret, lived with his wife, Heidi, in Stormville, N.Y., which is about an hour from New York City. He had one son from a previous marriage and two with Mrs. Maher. She left town on Friday, according to Leonard Lavelle, a neighbour.
Mr. Lavelle, who sued Mr. Maher two years ago over a property line dispute, said the Maher family kept to themselves.
The Mahers moved into the area in 1994. They built a Cape Cod-style house on an acre of land next door to Mr. Lavelle, who eventually settled the disagreement about the property line.
Mr. Safra hired Mr. Maher five months ago and he had been in Monaco for just six weeks. Prior to that, Mr. Maher worked as a nurse in a New York City hospital.
Melissa Krantz, a Republic spokeswoman, said background checks were done on Mr. Safra's personal staff but that it was hard to find good nurses. "The nurses had 24-hour, seven-day-a-week responsibility all around the world," she said in an interview. "Maybe it took its toll."
Mr. Safra had Parkinson's disease and received some of his first medical treatment in Toronto a year ago. He spent nearly two months being treated by a team of Toronto doctors. During his stay, Mr. Safra lived on a floor of the Four Seasons Hotel with his wife, Lily, and a team of bodyguards.
His entourage was so large, sources say, the hotel had to kick out Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger who was in town promoting a concert. While the Safras were in Toronto, Mrs. Safra's son from a previous marriage was seriously injured in a racing car accident in Italy. Mrs. Safra's first husband died in a car crash about 30 years ago. She married Mr. Safra in 1976 in Brazil.
"He was a very shy man," said Dr. Bernard Gosevitz, one of the doctors who treated Mr. Safra. "They were a class act. Very nice people. Obviously stressed when he was here."
Mr. Safra was buried in Geneva yesterday in a funeral attended by nearly 1,000 people. The mourners included David Levy, the Israeli foreign minister, Prince Sadruddin Arga Khan and Elie Wiesel, a Nobel Prize winner.
Mr. Safra "had brought together people from different backgrounds, cultures and religions and social horizons," Mr. Wiesel said yesterday.
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