Edmond Jacob Safra (August 6, 1932, Beirut, Lebanon - December 3, 1999, Monaco) was a Brazilian-naturalized, Jewish Lebanese banker who was born in Beirut. He continued the family tradition of banking, first in Lebanon and then in Brazil.
In 1949, the Safra family moved to Italy, fleeing the anti-Jewish riots in Beirut brought about by the emergence of the State of Israel in 1948. Edmond Safra worked for a trading company in Milan. The family moved once again in 1952, this time to Brazil, where Edmond Safra and his father Jacob founded the Banco Safra S.A. 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 found the business climate to be favorable and extended his financial empire, making it a point of honor to satisfy his wealthy clients from Monte Carlo to Miami. He also founded the Republic National Bank of New York in 1966.
Edmond Safra became famous in 1983 through the sale of the Trade Development Bank to American Express for more than $450 million, a transaction that turned into a legal battle between the two parties. The financier came out on top and, in 1988, he founded the Safra Republic Holdings S.A., a firm specializing in wealth management. By the early 1990s, Edmond Safra's fortune was an estimated at $2.5 billion. He was a major philantropist for various charities and Sephardic Jewish communities worldwide. As he approached his 60s, the financier shared his time between his home in Geneva, New York and his villas on the French Riviera. Weakened by Parkinson's disease, Safra required nursing care. Safra was killed by one of his providers, Ted Maher, who set a fire in his Monaco penthouse. Maher said he intended to rescue Safra from the blaze and wanted to emerge as a hero.