Edmond Safra
Encyclopedia
Edmond J. Safra was a Jewish Brazil
ian-naturalized, Lebanese
banker who continued the family tradition of banking in Lebanon, Brazil and Switzerland. He married Lily Watkins
. He died in a fire that attracted wide media interest and was judicially determined to be due to arson.
family from Beirut
. The Safras were engaged in the financing of trade between Aleppo
, Istanbul
and Alexandria
. His father, Jacob Safra
, had opened the J. E. Safra Bank in 1920. By the time he was sixteen, Edmond Safra was working at his father's bank and was engaged in the precious metals and foreign exchange aspects of the business.
In 1949, the family moved to Italy
, where he worked for a trading company in Milan
. The family moved again in 1952, this time to Brazil, where Edmond Safra and his father founded their first Brazilian financial institution in 1955.
In 1956, Edmond Safra settled in Geneva to set up a private bank, the Trade Development Bank
, which grew from an original $1 million to $5 billion during the 1980s. He extended his financial empire to satisfy his wealthy clients from around the world. He also founded the Republic National Bank of New York
in 1966, and, later, Republic National Bank of New York (Suisse) in Geneva. Republic bank operated 80 branches in the New York area, making it the number three branch network in the metropolitan region behind Citigroup and Chase Manhattan. In 1988, he also founded Safra Republic Holdings S.A., a bank holding company.
The sale of Trade Development Bank to American Express
for more than $450 million in 1983, turned into a legal battle between the two parties. The financier came out on top, winning a public apology from American Express for starting a smear campaign against him and $8 million in damages, all of which he donated to charities.
By the early 1990s, Safra's fortune was an estimated at $2.5 billion. He was a major philanthropist
during his lifetime, and he left his wealth to the Edmond J. Safra Philanthropic Foundation which supports hundreds of projects in fifty countries around the world in the areas of education, science and medicine, religion, culture and humanitarian assistance.
As he approached his 60s, the financier divided his time between his homes in Monaco
, Geneva
, and New York
and the Villa Leopolda
on the French Riviera
. Weakened by Parkinson's disease
, he required nursing care.
Another nurse, American Ted Maher
, who was sharing the night shift with Torrente at the time, was arrested under suspicion of starting the fire, and was convicted of the crime in 2002 by the Monaco Court. He claims that he was attacked by two masked men and, unable to figure out how to trigger the Safra's complex security system, started the fire in an attempt to trigger the system. The prosecution argued he was attempting to carry out a daring rescue, and thus increase his standing in the Safra family's eyes, but lost control of the fire unintentionally.
Vivian Torrente was found with several bruises and a bloodied thyroid. Her family sued the Safra's estate for wrongful death alleging that Edmond Safra strangled her in an attempt to keep her from leaving him. The case was settled out of court.
There were numerous irregularities about the case. Security camera tapes from the night mysteriously went missing, Safra's entire security detail was given the night off, Mr. Maher alleges that he was forced to sign a false confession, his wife alleges that she was kidnapped when she tried to visit him. Ted Maher's American lawyer, Michael Griffith, has said that Maher did indeed start the fire in order to gain acceptance from Mr. Safra and that "It was a stupid, most insane thing a human being could do,” says Griffith. “He did not intend to kill Mr. Safra. He just wanted Mr. Safra to appreciate him more. He loved Mr. Safra. This was the best job of his life.” Safra left 50% of his assets to several charities, with the remainder divided up between his family members and wife who received $ 800 million. The details of Safra's death were discussed by media outlets including 60 Minutes
, CBS 48 Hours
, Dateline NBC
and Dominick Dunne
in Vanity Fair
.
Committed to his Jewish faith, he believed that constructing and renovating synagogues was important in places where there was a potential for a Jewish community to flourish, and synagogues around the world bearing his father’s name testify to this commitment. Many of these were built in the world’s major Jewish centers, but he also helped to build synagogues in more remote communities such as Manila and Kinshasa.
500 years after the last synagogue was built in Madrid he constructed a new one. He also helped to renovate and enlarge synagogues in Amsterdam, Istanbul, Naples, Budapest, Rhodes, and Vienna. He saved the oldest synagogue in France, Clermont-Ferrand, from destruction by buying it for the community, and he contributed to the expansion of the Cannes synagogue and Synagogue Beth El in Paris. He also helped refurbish synagogues in many small French cities including Evian, Annemasse, and others. Among the synagogues is the Edmond J. Safra Synagogue
in New York City.
In addition to supporting a number of synagogues in Israel
, the tombs of Rabbi Meir Baal Haness and Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai were especially important to him, and he was without question the most generous supporter of these holy pilgrimage sites. For many years on Shavuot (Pentecost) eve, the day of the anniversary of his father’s death, he would pray at the tomb of Rabbi Meir until dawn.
During his lifetime Safra donated millions of dollars to provide treatment for the sick. Hospitals across the globe – the Hôpital Cantonal de Genève, the Hôpitaux de France, and countless institutions in the United States, for example – benefited from his generosity. He was one of the founders of Albert Einstein Hospital in São Paulo, today one of South America’s major medical centers. In Israel, he initiated the construction of the Edmond and Lily Safra Children’s Hospital at Tel Hashomer.
In the area of medical research, he was a significant supporter of the Institut Pasteur in Paris, the Weizmann Institute in Israel, the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research
and a number of different centers studying specific diseases in France, the United States, and elsewhere around the world. He created the Edmond and Lily Safra Chair in Breast Cancer Research at Tulane University.
Safra believed higher education was essential for every young person in the modern world, even though he himself never attended university. He provided university scholarship funds for tens of thousands of needy students through the International Sephardic Education Foundation (ISEF), an institution he and his wife established in 1977 to support deserving Israeli students.
Safra also helped universities directly, often through the support of chairs and particular programs (such as Judaic Studies). For example, at Harvard University he endowed the Jacob E. Safra Professorship of Jewish History and Sephardic Civilization, and he gave significant funds for the Robert F. Kennedy Visiting Professorship in Latin American Studies. At the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, he created the Jacob E. Safra Professorship of International Banking and the Safra Business Research Center.
He was a significant benefactor of the American University of Beirut
, and he was awarded Honorary Doctorates by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Yeshiva University (where he established the Jacob E. Safra Institute of Sephardic Studies) for his ongoing support of those institutions.
With respect to younger children’s education, he was especially devoted to schools in the cities where he lived – for example, he founded Ecole Girsa, Geneva’s first and largest Jewish school. He took great pride in founding the Beit Yaacov school in Bat Yam, which has been consistently rated among the best of Israel’s schools. He was also one of the world’s most significant benefactors of yeshivot (religious schools training young men to be rabbis, Jewish teachers, and judges), assisting numerous institutions worldwide.
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ian-naturalized, Lebanese
Lebanese people
The Lebanese people are a nation and ethnic group of Levantine people originating in what is today the country of Lebanon, including those who had inhabited Mount Lebanon prior to the creation of the modern Lebanese state....
banker who continued the family tradition of banking in Lebanon, Brazil and Switzerland. He married Lily Watkins
Lily Safra
Lily Safra is a Brazilian-Monegasque philanthropist and social figure who attained considerable wealth after four marriages. Her net worth is estimated at $1 billion, ranking her as the 701st richest person in the world according to Forbes in 2009...
. He died in a fire that attracted wide media interest and was judicially determined to be due to arson.
Life of Edmond Safra
The Safra family is a Mizrahi JewishMizrahi Jews
Mizrahi Jews or Mizrahiyim, , also referred to as Adot HaMizrach are Jews descended from the Jewish communities of the Middle East, North Africa and the Caucasus...
family from Beirut
Beirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
. The Safras were engaged in the financing of trade between Aleppo
Aleppo
Aleppo is the largest city in Syria and the capital of Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Syrian governorate. With an official population of 2,301,570 , expanding to over 2.5 million in the metropolitan area, it is also one of the largest cities in the Levant...
, Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
and Alexandria
Alexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
. His father, Jacob Safra
Jacob Safra
Jacqui Eli Safra is a Swiss investor, descendant of the Lebanon-Swiss Jewish Safra banking family. Some of his investments include Encyclopædia Britannica, Merriam-Webster, and Spring Mountain Vineyards, a large wine-growing estate located in Saint Helena, California. He is the nephew of Edmond...
, had opened the J. E. Safra Bank in 1920. By the time he was sixteen, Edmond Safra was working at his father's bank and was engaged in the precious metals and foreign exchange aspects of the business.
In 1949, the family moved to Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, where he worked for a trading company in Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
. The family moved again in 1952, this time to Brazil, where Edmond Safra and his father founded their first Brazilian financial institution in 1955.
In 1956, Edmond Safra settled in Geneva to set up a private bank, the Trade Development Bank
Trade Development Bank
Trade Development Bank was a private Geneva-based bank built by Edmond Safra in the 1950s. Beginning with only $1 million, the bank grew into the flagship of Safra’s international banking empire with nearly $5 billion in deposits by the early 1980s...
, which grew from an original $1 million to $5 billion during the 1980s. He extended his financial empire to satisfy his wealthy clients from around the world. He also founded the Republic National Bank of New York
Republic New York
Republic New York Corporation was the holding company for the Republic National Bank of New York and the Safra Republic Bank. The company was controlled by billionaire Edmond Safra, who was killed in a fire in his Monte Carlo penthouse apartment by his nurse Ted Maher...
in 1966, and, later, Republic National Bank of New York (Suisse) in Geneva. Republic bank operated 80 branches in the New York area, making it the number three branch network in the metropolitan region behind Citigroup and Chase Manhattan. In 1988, he also founded Safra Republic Holdings S.A., a bank holding company.
The sale of Trade Development Bank to American Express
American Express
American Express Company or AmEx, is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Three World Financial Center, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. Founded in 1850, it is one of the 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is best...
for more than $450 million in 1983, turned into a legal battle between the two parties. The financier came out on top, winning a public apology from American Express for starting a smear campaign against him and $8 million in damages, all of which he donated to charities.
By the early 1990s, Safra's fortune was an estimated at $2.5 billion. He was a major philanthropist
Philanthropist
A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...
during his lifetime, and he left his wealth to the Edmond J. Safra Philanthropic Foundation which supports hundreds of projects in fifty countries around the world in the areas of education, science and medicine, religion, culture and humanitarian assistance.
As he approached his 60s, the financier divided his time between his homes in Monaco
Monaco
Monaco , officially the Principality of Monaco , is a sovereign city state on the French Riviera. It is bordered on three sides by its neighbour, France, and its centre is about from Italy. Its area is with a population of 35,986 as of 2011 and is the most densely populated country in the...
, Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
, and New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and the Villa Leopolda
Villa Leopolda
Villa La Leopolda is a large villa in the French town of Villefranche-sur-Mer on the French Riviera.-History:Villa La Leopolda in it's current incarnation was designed and built from 1929 through 1931 by an American architect, Boston's Ogden Codman Jr...
on the French Riviera
French Riviera
The Côte d'Azur, pronounced , often known in English as the French Riviera , is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France, also including the sovereign state of Monaco...
. Weakened by Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system...
, he required nursing care.
Death of Edmond Safra
In December 1999, Safra and nurse Vivian Torrente were suffocated by fumes in a fire deliberately lit at the billionaire's Monaco home.Another nurse, American Ted Maher
Ted Maher
Theodore Maher is an American registered nurse convicted of arson in a 1999 fire that killed Edmond Safra and a nurse, Vivian Torrente, at Safra’s penthouse apartment in Monaco. In October 2007 Maher was released after serving eight years in jail...
, who was sharing the night shift with Torrente at the time, was arrested under suspicion of starting the fire, and was convicted of the crime in 2002 by the Monaco Court. He claims that he was attacked by two masked men and, unable to figure out how to trigger the Safra's complex security system, started the fire in an attempt to trigger the system. The prosecution argued he was attempting to carry out a daring rescue, and thus increase his standing in the Safra family's eyes, but lost control of the fire unintentionally.
Vivian Torrente was found with several bruises and a bloodied thyroid. Her family sued the Safra's estate for wrongful death alleging that Edmond Safra strangled her in an attempt to keep her from leaving him. The case was settled out of court.
There were numerous irregularities about the case. Security camera tapes from the night mysteriously went missing, Safra's entire security detail was given the night off, Mr. Maher alleges that he was forced to sign a false confession, his wife alleges that she was kidnapped when she tried to visit him. Ted Maher's American lawyer, Michael Griffith, has said that Maher did indeed start the fire in order to gain acceptance from Mr. Safra and that "It was a stupid, most insane thing a human being could do,” says Griffith. “He did not intend to kill Mr. Safra. He just wanted Mr. Safra to appreciate him more. He loved Mr. Safra. This was the best job of his life.” Safra left 50% of his assets to several charities, with the remainder divided up between his family members and wife who received $ 800 million. The details of Safra's death were discussed by media outlets including 60 Minutes
60 Minutes
60 Minutes is an American television news magazine, which has run on CBS since 1968. The program was created by producer Don Hewitt who set it apart by using a unique style of reporter-centered investigation....
, CBS 48 Hours
48 Hours (TV series)
48 Hours is a documentary and news program broadcast on the CBS television network since January 19, 1988. The program originally presented documentaries of various events related to a particular subject occurring within a 48-hour period, and is credited as one of the first to air a "reality show"...
, Dateline NBC
Dateline NBC
Dateline NBC, or Dateline, is a U.S. weekly television newsmagazine broadcast by NBC. It previously was NBC's flagship news magazine, but now focuses on true crime stories. It airs Friday at 9 p.m. EST and after football season on Sunday at 7 p.m. EST.-History:Dateline is historically notable for...
and Dominick Dunne
Dominick Dunne
Dominick John Dunne was an American writer and investigative journalist, whose subjects frequently hinged on the ways in which high society interacts with the judicial system...
in Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (magazine)
Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
.
Philanthropic activities
Safra supported educational, religious, medical, cultural, and humanitarian causes and organizations around the world, and the Edmond J. Safra Philanthropic Foundation carries on this work today in his memory.Committed to his Jewish faith, he believed that constructing and renovating synagogues was important in places where there was a potential for a Jewish community to flourish, and synagogues around the world bearing his father’s name testify to this commitment. Many of these were built in the world’s major Jewish centers, but he also helped to build synagogues in more remote communities such as Manila and Kinshasa.
500 years after the last synagogue was built in Madrid he constructed a new one. He also helped to renovate and enlarge synagogues in Amsterdam, Istanbul, Naples, Budapest, Rhodes, and Vienna. He saved the oldest synagogue in France, Clermont-Ferrand, from destruction by buying it for the community, and he contributed to the expansion of the Cannes synagogue and Synagogue Beth El in Paris. He also helped refurbish synagogues in many small French cities including Evian, Annemasse, and others. Among the synagogues is the Edmond J. Safra Synagogue
Edmond J. Safra Synagogue
The Edmond J. Safra Synagogue is an Orthodox Sephardic synagogue located on East 63rd Street off of Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, New York.The synagogue project was initiated by philanthropist Edmond Safra before his death in 1999, and dedicated in 2003. Safra's goal was to have a Sephardic synagogue...
in New York City.
In addition to supporting a number of synagogues in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, the tombs of Rabbi Meir Baal Haness and Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai were especially important to him, and he was without question the most generous supporter of these holy pilgrimage sites. For many years on Shavuot (Pentecost) eve, the day of the anniversary of his father’s death, he would pray at the tomb of Rabbi Meir until dawn.
During his lifetime Safra donated millions of dollars to provide treatment for the sick. Hospitals across the globe – the Hôpital Cantonal de Genève, the Hôpitaux de France, and countless institutions in the United States, for example – benefited from his generosity. He was one of the founders of Albert Einstein Hospital in São Paulo, today one of South America’s major medical centers. In Israel, he initiated the construction of the Edmond and Lily Safra Children’s Hospital at Tel Hashomer.
In the area of medical research, he was a significant supporter of the Institut Pasteur in Paris, the Weizmann Institute in Israel, the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research
The Michael J. Fox Foundation
The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research is dedicated to finding a cure for Parkinson's disease through an aggressively funded research agenda and to ensuring the development of improved therapies for those living with Parkinson's today. Established by actor Michael J...
and a number of different centers studying specific diseases in France, the United States, and elsewhere around the world. He created the Edmond and Lily Safra Chair in Breast Cancer Research at Tulane University.
Safra believed higher education was essential for every young person in the modern world, even though he himself never attended university. He provided university scholarship funds for tens of thousands of needy students through the International Sephardic Education Foundation (ISEF), an institution he and his wife established in 1977 to support deserving Israeli students.
Safra also helped universities directly, often through the support of chairs and particular programs (such as Judaic Studies). For example, at Harvard University he endowed the Jacob E. Safra Professorship of Jewish History and Sephardic Civilization, and he gave significant funds for the Robert F. Kennedy Visiting Professorship in Latin American Studies. At the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, he created the Jacob E. Safra Professorship of International Banking and the Safra Business Research Center.
He was a significant benefactor of the American University of Beirut
American University of Beirut
The American University of Beirut is a private, independent university in Beirut, Lebanon. It was founded as the Syrian Protestant College by American missionaries in 1866...
, and he was awarded Honorary Doctorates by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Yeshiva University (where he established the Jacob E. Safra Institute of Sephardic Studies) for his ongoing support of those institutions.
With respect to younger children’s education, he was especially devoted to schools in the cities where he lived – for example, he founded Ecole Girsa, Geneva’s first and largest Jewish school. He took great pride in founding the Beit Yaacov school in Bat Yam, which has been consistently rated among the best of Israel’s schools. He was also one of the world’s most significant benefactors of yeshivot (religious schools training young men to be rabbis, Jewish teachers, and judges), assisting numerous institutions worldwide.
Honors
Recognized worldwide for his philanthropy, Edmond J. Safra was named Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur by the French government; Commandeur de l’Ordre de Mérite by the Grand Duke of Luxembourg; and Commandeur de l’Ordre de Rio Branco by the government of Brazil.External links
- Edmond J. Safra Philanthropic Foundation
- CBS News 48 Hours Mystery Murder in Monaco
- Extensive Court TV coverage of Safra's death
- Safra SquareSafra SquareSafra Square is Jerusalem's city hall public square named after Jacob and Esther Safra, parents of Edmond J. Safra, a Jewish philanthropist who contributed generously to the renovation of downtown Jerusalem.-Location:...