Inside the Baffling Story of Murder in Monaco: What to Know About Edmond Safra’s Death and Ted Maher's Involvement By Alex Gurley

Edmond Safra was one of the wealthiest private bankers in the world, but in December 1999, his life came to an untimely end at the hands of one of his trusted employees.

The story of Safra’s death is chronicled in the Netflix documentary Murder in Monaco, which recounts what authorities described as an attempt by the billionaire’s nurse, Ted Maher, to falsify a thwarted home invasion to emerge as a hero. A jury found that his scheme ultimately took the life of his employer, as well as another staff member, Vivian Torrente.

At the time of his death, Safra had spent the past five decades as a powerhouse in the financial industry. The 67-year-old Lebanese-Brazilian businessman had amassed a billion-dollar fortune working with the world’s richest people, and he tried to maintain his privacy.

Surrounded by highly skilled bodyguards, Safra had created a haven in Monaco in the form of an impenetrable penthouse apartment, equipped with state-of-the-art security systems. Still, he fell victim to an act of betrayal from within.

Maher, a former Green Beret and NICU nurse, had been working for Safra for only a matter of months when he staged a fake intrusion at the penthouse, authorities said, according to NBC’s Dateline. Maher had allegedly hoped that by saving the day, he could win favor with Safra and secure his position on the staff.

It didn’t take long for the plan to go awry, and Safra became trapped in a safe room as the rest of the apartment went up in flames. It took authorities hours to coordinate and break through the security system — and by that point, Safra was dead.

So what happened to Edmond Safra? Here’s everything to know about his death and Ted Maher’s involvement.

Who was Edmond Safra?

Before his death, Safra was considered one of the world’s wealthiest and most influential private bankers. In 1932, he was born in Beirut, Lebanon, into a banking dynasty founded by his father, Jacob Safra. The elder Safra was at the helm of the financial institution Banque Jacob E. Safra, now known as Banque de Crédit National S.A.L.

By the time he was a teenager, Safra was already working for his father’s company. Amidst political and social unrest in Lebanon, a 15-years-old Safra was sent by his father to live in Milan in 1947, where he established a gold trading and foreign exchange operation, as described in A Banker’s Journey by historian Daniel Gross.

Safra eventually found success in the precious metals industry as he continued to build the family business into an empire. When other relatives branched out across the world, he decided to join them. In 1954, he headed to South America, where he made his mark on the Latin American financial industry alongside his father. Safra later returned to Europe, where he became a financial powerhouse in his own right, settling in Geneva.

Over the course of a decade, he founded the Trade Development Bank and the Republic National Bank of New York, serving wealthy clients worldwide and developing businesses worth billions of dollars, per The New York Times. With his growing fortune, Safra also founded a bank holding company and became a joint venture partner in a major hedge fund.

By the time he was in his 60s, he was widely recognized as having significantly shaped international finance. His reach also extended to advising governments and institutions. But in the final years of his life, Safra’s health had declined as he dealt with Parkinson’s disease and received care from a team of private nurses, according to Vanity Fair.

With his faltering health, he appeared to be ready to step away from the world of finance. Unfortunately, his life was unexpectedly cut short on Dec. 3, 1999.

Who is Ted Maher?

Before Maher found himself the prime suspect in the death of a billionaire, he lived an ordinary life, worlds away from Safra’s luxurious life in Monaco.

Born in 1958, Maher spent much of his adolescence in upstate New York. From a working-class background, Maher couldn’t afford college, so he enlisted in the Army to pay tuition, according to Dateline. He succeeded in the military and ultimately served with the Special Forces, where he was a medic, and later became part of the Green Berets.

After leaving the Army, he enrolled in school to become a nurse, where he met his wife Heidi. Already a father from a previous relationship, the pair married and went on to welcome two more children. They settled in New York, and Maher began working in the neonatal intensive care unit at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital.

It was an unlikely scenario at that hospital that ended up connecting Maher and Safra. Looking back on Dateline, Maher explained that while on shift, he found a lost camera belonging to a couple who had just welcomed twins. As they’d already been discharged, he mailed it back to them with a congratulatory note. The infants’ godmother happened to be Adriana Elia, the daughter of Safra’s wife Lily Safra.

When the Safras heard of Maher’s good deed and learned that he had both a background in nursing and the military, they offered him a position on the billionaire’s private medical team. He would earn over $200,000 a year, per Dateline, but was required to split his time between New York and Safra’s residences in Monaco.

Although he would be separated from his family for long periods, he said that the pay was too good to refuse. In the summer of 1999, Maher jetted to the south of France to begin his new career.

“I felt blessed. I mean, it wasn’t a matter of being lucky. It was almost like a blessing,” Maher told Dateline. “Every place that I ever visited, his banks, his offices, were beyond your wildest dreams. … It was beyond any description. So lavish, so beautiful.”

Just months later, Safra would be dead and Maher would be at the center of the mystery surrounding his death.

What happened on the night of Edmond Safra’s death?

On the night of Safra’s death, the financier was spending time in his sprawling penthouse apartment that covered the top two floors of Monaco’s Belle Époque building.

Safra’s Monaco residence had state-of-the-art security as well as bulletproof glass and steel shutters on every window, according to Dateline. He was also guarded by a staff of bodyguards trained by an Israeli intelligence agency.

Still, Safra and his wife felt so safe there that their team of security guards was often permitted to sleep at their other estate, 10 miles away. But the sense of safety changed in the early hours of Dec. 3.

It had been several months since Maher had joined the nursing staff, and he was planning for his family to join him in Monaco soon. That evening, Maher and another nurse, Torrente, were tasked with administering medication and sitting by Safra’s bedside while he slept.

What exactly transpired over the next several hours is still unknown and has been highly debated. But according to Maher’s account, he was sitting at his desk at the nursing station when two masked men attacked him. After being hit on the head, Maher tried to fight back but was stabbed several times.

“The second man pulled out a knife. And they grabbed a hold of my leg, pulling me towards them as I was trying to get away from them. And they took the knife, and I was cut on my left calf,” Maher told Dateline. “I turned, and I was cut on my right side with this knife. And then I turned again, trying to get away, and I was stabbed in the middle. And at that point, I went unconscious.”

When he came to several minutes later, the masked men were gone, and Maher rushed to Safra’s room. He directed Safra and Torrente to retreat to the bathroom, which doubled as a panic room, and gave them his cell phone to call for help. Meanwhile, Maher lit a tissue on fire in a trash can to set off a smoke alarm and alert authorities to the trouble.

He then headed to the building’s lobby to inform security about the break-in and seek help for his injuries. As Maher was transported to Princess Grace Hospital, he believed police were coming to the aid of Safra and his other nurse.

But that was not the case. The fire in the trash can had quickly spread. Flames burned as Safra and Torrente were trapped in the bathroom with no one coming to their aid, despite their phone calls pleading for help.

It was later revealed that, due to a series of miscommunications and difficulties in penetrating the highly secure apartment, several hours elapsed between Maher being taken to the hospital and authorities reaching Safra and Torrente.

While Safra’s chief of security attempted to intervene and charge up to the apartment, he was arrested by police who believed he was a part of the plot.

By the time help reached them, Safra and Torrente had died from smoke inhalation.

Was Ted Maher charged for his involvement in Edmond Safra’s death?

In the weeks following Safra’s death, a theory emerged as to how the fire was started. According to Monaco authorities, there were no intruders or break-in attempts — Maher was entirely at fault for the whole incident.

Per Dateline, police alleged that Maher, to keep his job, had staged an invasion and fire with self-inflicted wounds, so that he could emerge as a hero who saved Safra.

Unfortunately, things didn’t go according to plan for Maher. He was arrested and taken to jail, where he signed a confession stating that his scheme had gone awry, ultimately leading to Safra’s death. He even walked through the charred apartment with authorities, taking them through his actions step-by-step.

Maher spent three years behind bars in pretrial detention in Monaco before the case went to trial in 2002, where he admitted the entire incident was a “terrible accident.”

His lawyer, an American named Michael Griffith, who volunteered to take the case, did not deny that Maher had lied about being attacked and was at fault for starting the fire, but he argued that Maher never meant to harm Safra or Torrente.

“It was a stupid, most insane thing a human being could do,” Griffith said, per CBS News. “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.”

In the end, Maher was convicted of arson causing death and sentenced to 10 years in prison, CNN reported. Shortly after the trial concluded, he tried to escape but was caught.

Why did Ted Maher recant his confession?

While the case may have appeared straightforward, Maher has since claimed that there were missteps.

After serving eight years in prison, Maher was released in 2007, per the New York Post, and recanted his confession given to the police. Since then, he has spent years attempting to clear his name.

In his interview with Dateline, Maher said that authorities coerced him into confessing to the crime while he was still recovering in the hospital. He claimed that he was forced to sign the document under duress, which was written entirely in French, all while police threatened to harm his wife.

“They said you did this, you killed Vivian Torrente, you have killed Mr. Safra, and I said no, I haven’t, and they continued to grill me. You know, making accusations about me that I was a murderer, an assassin. That I had ulterior motives,” Maher said.

He continued, “The French police came up and said, ‘You will sign this or your wife will not leave the country.’ … I did not even know what I was signing. I did not know what this document was until after it was translated.”

Maher claimed that he stuck with the story in court because lawyers advised him that he would receive a lesser prison sentence if he appeared cooperative. He also disputed the reported motives for the alleged crime.

“I already have everything that I wanted in life, could possibly want in life. And I want to kill my employer? Or show myself as a hero? What’s the purpose? I didn’t have [a motive]. It doesn’t make any sense. There is no reason. There’s no rationale for it,” Maher said to Dateline.

Meanwhile, Monaco authorities told Dateline that Maher did have access to a translator before signing his confession, and his legal team has maintained that they never suggested he should lie in court.

Where is Ted Maher now?

After Maher was released from prison, he returned to the United States. While his wife Heidi had supported him during the trial, she eventually divorced him in 2006 and took custody of their children.

Despite still having his nursing license, Maher struggled to find work, telling the New York Post in 2008 that after employers learned of his jail time, they often rejected his application. He eventually got a job working at an elder care facility in Connecticut and held several other positions before the Texas Board of Nursing revoked his license in 2013. He later changed his name to Jon Green.

While working as a long-haul trucker, he met a physician named Kim Lark when he was in the process of being diagnosed with melanoma, she told the Post. The pair began dating and eventually married in 2020. Lark later shared that she did know of Maher’s past but initially believed his story that intruders attacked him.

Three years into their relationship, Lark said to the Post that “things started to fall apart” as Maher allegedly began exhibiting erratic behavior. She got a temporary restraining order against him, she told NBC News, but she claims Maher continued to harass her. In 2022, according to a criminal complaint cited in reports, he broke into her office and stole an iPad, $600 in cash, a handgun and a checkbook. He was caught when he attempted to cash a $44,000 check at a local bank, but fled from police at the scene, the complaint reportedly said.

Less than a month later, Maher stole Lark’s Ford Explorer as well as her two beloved dogs. He was eventually arrested at a VA hospital in Texas, and the pets were recovered. In 2023, he was found guilty of two counts of forgery and was sent to jail.

“Honestly, I think everything out of his mouth is a lie,” Lark told the New York Post in 2024. “He’s a con artist. He can be whatever he needed to be.”

While behind bars, Maher was accused of attempting to pay a fellow prisoner to kill Lark by way of fentanyl poisoning. Lark was tipped off thanks to one of Maher’s cellmates, according to the Carlsbad Current-Argus, and he was taken to court, where he was found guilty of murder for hire. He was sentenced to nine years in jail in July 2025, per the Carlsbad Current-Argus.

Maher is currently being held at the Central New Mexico Correctional Facility under his new name, where he was last reported to be dealing with late-stage throat cancer, according to Lark.