What’s the motive behind the murder, and who benefits from it the most? This is apparently one of the most important questions that any detective asks during a homicide investigation. And if we talk about Edmond Safra’s case, then sadly it wasn’t his alleged killer, Ted Maher, who stood to profit the most from his death. Instead, it was Edmond’s wife, Lily Watkins Safra, who had bagged a huge fortune after her husband’s murder but was never really investigated for it. And I know this is the one question on your mind: Why? Why was Lily never investigated for Edmond Safra’s death? After watching the Netflix documentary, Murder in Monaco, even a fool can tell that there were too many holes in her story, but no one dared to fill those gaps in, because she shut everyone down through her power and influence. It seemed like Lily never wanted anyone to get to the bottom of her involvement in the matter, as it might have put an end to her vast empire.
It’s no surprise that the Lebanese-Brazilian banker had made too many enemies during his lifetime, and that there were some really powerful people who wanted him dead. The scariest of the lot was the Russian Mob itself. As per Murder In Monaco, the Federal Bureau had been investigating an alleged Russian money laundering case in which the Russian Mob was getting a shipment of up to a billion dollars from the US Federal Reserve. And Edmond’s bank, Republic National Bank, was one of the key parties involved in this investigation. It was believed that Edmond had given evidence against the Russian Mob to the FBI, which was why the mobsters put out a contract on Edmond’s life. After his death, his nurse, Ted Maher, told the authorities that a day before the murder, he was abducted off the streets of Nice by people in a van. According to Ted, these people had Russian accents, and they asked him to keep the bulletproof shutters on the windows in Edmond Safra’s apartment open next night. The next day, Ted was attacked by two men in the gym inside the penthouse, soon after which he moved Edmond and his nurse, Vivian Torrente, into the panic room to protect his employer from the threat. Ted wanted to raise the alarm and inform the authorities about the attack, but he didn’t know what to do, so he started a fire inside the penthouse to trigger the fire alarm, but things got out of hand, and Edmond and Vivian died from asphyxiation while stuck inside the panic room. Now, there’s no way to find out if Ted was telling the truth or not, as Murder In Monaco convinced us that Ted was a compulsive liar who twisted the narrative to suit his interest. However, there were a few other things that made people suspect that Lily Safra might have had a role to play in her husband’s murder.
Speaking of Edmond’s brothers, Joseph and Moise, they still believe that it was Lily who killed their brother, and even though she was never thoroughly investigated, there was too much evidence pointing towards her to ignore. To begin with, Lily had fired Edmond’s previous head of security, introduced as Mr. X in the documentary, and replaced him with Samuel Cohen, who was loyal to Lily and took orders from her. It was evident that Lily had some sinister plan in mind, which she executed after the couple moved to Monaco. On the night of Edmond’s murder, not one member of Edmond’s personal security detail was with him. Lily had given orders that she didn’t want any security there because she believed Monaco was secure. In short, all the bodyguards had taken the night off, allowing the perpetrators to break into the property and execute their mission. To me, it seemed like someone had given Lily instructions to make this assassination attempt easy for them. And coincidentally, these instructions were quite similar to the ones the Russians had given to Ted Maher when they abducted him off the streets. So was Lily acting under the threat of Russian mobsters, or in her own interest? Well, we will never find out.
Additionally, before his death, Edmond had changed his will and removed his brothers’ names from it. His brothers were like his best friends, and it didn’t make any sense for Edmond to take their names out of his will. Then, a week before the incident, Lily and Edmond had both become Monegasque citizens, which meant they didn’t have to pay any taxes on their income anymore. Monaco is apparently a rich man’s paradise. A billionaire boys’ club, but Lily had a different motive in mind: to reap the benefits of this princely microstate. After Edmond’s death, she inherited her husband’s fortune of 4.8 billion dollars, tax-free. This begs the question: was it a mere coincidence, or did Lily actually set it all up? It was assumed that Edmond was going to reverse his will, which might have prompted Lily to speed up her plans, but again, there’s no evidence to prove her involvement in any of it. However, one could see a pattern in Lily’s past. Her second husband, Alfredo “Freddy” Monteverde, had died under mysterious circumstances. As per the autopsy report, he committed suicide by shooting himself twice in the chest. Well, no one could really digest the fact that he shot himself twice, but the authorities still ruled his death a suicide. And what was stranger in this was that, weeks before his death, Freddy had changed his will, excluding his mother and sister from it, who were the original shareholders in his company, from inheriting his fortune. Yes, he willed everything he owned to his wife, whom he had apparently decided to divorce. Doesn’t make any sense, right? His dead body was found in his residence, so you never know who it was who really pulled the trigger. In simple words, there are a lot of similarities between Freddy and Edmond’s deaths, especially in the way Lily secured her husbands’ assets, yet no one officially raised a concern, or should I say, dared to raise a finger. Maybe Lily was too lucky, or very well-connected?
After Edmond’s death, Lily decided to sell his villa, La Leopolda, one of the most expensive villas in the world, and it wasn’t a surprise that there was a Russian businessman interested in buying the property. Mikhail Prokhorov, a Russian nickel magnate, had offered 500 million dollars for La Leopolda. He entered into a preliminary contract with Lily and handed over a deposit of 53 million dollars, but this deal never went through. What was suspicious here was that Lily never returned the money, and Prokhorov never asked her to return it. Strange, isn’t it? So, was it an act of charity meant to help out one of the richest women on the planet, or was it a payment for something she had done for the Russians? The involvement of the Russian mobsters in Edmond’s murder became clearer when, in 2005, Judge Hullin made a public statement accusing Monaco’s justice system of engaging in illicit practices. He told the media that Edmond Safra’s murder trial was rigged. It seemed like some really influential people wanted to make Ted Maher a scapegoat, so that the case was never thoroughly investigated. And it could have been anyone, Lily, the Russian mobsters, or maybe both.
Even during the investigation, Lily used her influence to make sure Ted remained the prime suspect in her husband’s murder. It was Lily’s staff who contacted Ted’s wife, Heidi, and invited her to Monaco, likely to put some pressure on Ted. Because you see, as soon as Heidi and her brother arrived in the country, they were abducted by Lily’s chauffeur, which forced Ted to confess his crimes. He might have gotten worried about his wife and children and said things he might not have shared with the police without a lawyer. Later, Heidi had even filed a lawsuit against Lily, but two days before the trial, Heidi dropped the lawsuit. Ted believes that his ex-wife might have been paid by Lily to drop the case. But as usual, no one knows the entire truth. However, what Lily did next made it extremely clear that she didn’t want anyone to dig up the past or find any loopholes in the botched trial. Ted’s American lawyer, Michael Griffith, arranged a mock trial of her client’s case, but on the day of the event, it was shut down by Lily’s lawyers. Investigative journalist Isabel Vincent and British-Jamaican author Lady Colin Campbell had written books on the infamous Edmond Safra murder trial, but they were both sued by Lily’s lawyers. Isabel’s book was banned in Brazil, while Lady C’s was released with many redactions. Both of these writers had tried to put Lily in the spotlight and discuss her involvement in her husband’s murder, but their efforts were met with force, and their voices were eventually silenced. After Edmond’s death, Lily lived a comfortable life and eventually died from pancreatic cancer. She was 87 years old. I guess it wouldn’t be wrong to say she took the truth about Edmond’s murder to her grave, and with her gone, there’s no way to find out who was the real mastermind behind the billionaire’s death. But what do you think about it all? Do you still suspect that it was the wife who conspired against her husband to steal the fortune or might have acted under external threat? Well, do let me know your thoughts in the comment below.
