Netflix’s Murder in Monaco is, in terms of its overall construction, a totally unremarkable documentary. But it’s telling a pretty remarkable story, which in the grand scheme of things is all that matters. But the truth behind the death of billionaire Edmond Safra, who asphyxiated in the safehouse of his Monaco penthouse in 1999, is a bit more strange and complex than a 90-minute feature film can really allow for, folding in all kinds of twists, turns, and theories about who was really at fault.
The documentary’s major coup is the presence of Ted Maher, the nurse accused and convicted of starting the fire that killed Safra. He’s interviewed at length, and his testimony provides a guiding voice through the story, which at one time gripped the world with its wide-reaching implications. To this day, there’s no clear picture of who was really to blame for burning the 67-year-old Lebanese-Brazilian banker alive. The true story’s return to the public consciousness here in Hodges Usry’s film is likely to ignite a firestorm of its own among amateur sleuths and true-crime enthusiasts, but the reality may never be discovered.
The Death of Edmond Safra
On December 3, 1999, Edmond Safra, the founder of The Republic National Bank, died of smoke inhalation in his penthouse in Monte Carlo, Monaco. The penthouse was absurdly well-guarded, given Safra’s status, so suspicions immediately fell on those who were inside at the time, specifically Ted Maher, a former Green Beret and nurse who had been hired by Safra to care for him full-time following a Parkinson’s diagnosis.
Maher, according to him, was the hero of the story. Intruders had supposedly broken into the penthouse, and in fighting them off, he had been stabbed. In the early hours of the morning, he instructed Safra and another nurse, Vivian Torrente, to take shelter in the penthouse’s panic room, but by the time the emergency services reached them, they were dead.
Maher claimed that the intruders had started the fire on the way out, but his story didn’t hold up to scrutiny.
Ted Maher’s Confession
When the authorities found no evidence of intruders to corroborate Maher’s story, he eventually confessed to having staged the attack and started the fire himself in an attempt to “save” Safra and secure his job, which was paying him a fortune. According to his testimony, the fire simply got out of hand, and Safra’s death was a terrible accident.
However, Maher, who only spoke English, was forced to sign a French confession, the contents of which he supposedly wasn’t made privy to, apparently under threats against his wife. This was enough to cast a pall of conspiracy over the whole thing, for pretty understandable reasons, even though after admitting his guilt, Maher insisted that if the police had not delayed firefighters from entering the building – on the grounds of the supposed assailants potentially still being inside – the fire would have been extinguished and nobody would have died. It’s a bit like he’s caught between trying to maintain his innocence but also assuring people that, in his guilt, he’d have nonetheless done a good job if it weren’t for factors outside of his control.
Maher was convicted of arson causing death in December 2002 and sentenced to a decade in prison. He escaped a month later, but was arrested in France hours after that.
The Russian Connection
Outside of the odd circumstances surrounding Maher’s confession, there was another reason to doubt the conveniently open-and-shut explanation for Safra’s demise: The Russian Mafia.
Before his death, Safra had blown the whistle on Russian oligarchs laundering money through his bank, an activity that generally has an extremely low survival rate. Anyone who has to constantly be surrounded by armed security is always going to attract an unusual amount of scrutiny when they just so happen to burn up in their penthouse safehouses, and the relative ease of Maher’s conviction unavoidably created the impression of a convenient patsy.
Not that he did himself any favours.
Ted Maher’s Reinvention As “Jon Green”
After his release from prison, Maher returned to his original story, claiming everything that deviated from his initial claims of heroism was coerced by the Monaco police at the behest of whatever powerful string-pullers were really responsible for Safra’s death. Not only did Maher fail to clear his name, he also changed his name to “Jon Green” and then engaged in a string of such flagrant criminality that he only succeeded in damning himself further.
As Green, Maher tried to return to nursing, failed to disclose his conviction, and had his licence revoked. His credentials as a former Green Beret were questioned. In April 2022, he broke into the office of his fourth ex-wife, Kim Lark, and stole a variety of items, including cash and a gun. He later returned to kidnap her three dogs, tried (and failed) to cash a substantial check, and was eventually rearrested. He was found guilty on two counts of forgery in 2023.
Evidently unsatisfied with just being back in prison, Maher supposedly paid another inmate to kill Lark. He was charged with this too, found guilty of it, and sentenced to an additional nine years. He currently has throat cancer, capping a remarkable streak of terribly unfortunate developments.
