Monaco Murder Mystery: Who Wanted a Billionaire Banker Dead—and Why
On December 3, 1999, flames ripped through billionaire banker Edmond Safra’s Monte Carlo penthouse, shattering the Riviera’s gilded calm and sending shockwaves through Monaco’s elite. Murder in Monaco dives into the inferno that ended a titan’s life—and the secrets it set ablaze.
Netflix is heading to the Riviera for a true-crime story that is as grim as it is surreal. 'Murder in Monaco' digs back into the 1999 penthouse fire that killed billionaire banker Edmond Safra, a case packed with wealth, fear, wild claims, and an ending that still makes people argue.
When and what you are getting
'Murder in Monaco' starts streaming on Netflix on December 17, 2025. It is directed by Hodges Usry, who has a track record with investigative true-crime. The film revisits the Safra fire from the ground up: reexamining evidence, interviewing people who knew him, journalists, and police, and laying out competing theories. The trailer teases a mix of insiders and investigators rather than just lurid retellings, which is promising.
The night everything went wrong
- December 3, 1999: A blaze breaks out inside Safra's ultra-secure Monaco penthouse. Rumors fly about masked intruders. Safra and one of his nurses, Viviane Torrent, shelter in a locked bathroom. Both ultimately die of asphyxiation.
- Nurse Ted Maher tells authorities armed intruders attacked and stabbed him. That story does not hold up.
- A court later determines Maher stabbed himself and sparked a small fire by lighting toilet paper in a trash bin to trigger a smoke alarm and draw help. He fainted while trying to get assistance, and the fire spread.
- Maher is sentenced to 10 years in prison and is released in 2007. Afterward, he changes his account, saying Monaco authorities framed him.
- Years later, using the name Jon Green, he is convicted again—this time for arranging a hit man to try to kill his fourth wife.
Who Edmond Safra was, and why this case rattled people
Edmond Jacob Safra was born in 1932 in Beirut into a Jewish-Lebanese banking family with roots going back to the Ottoman era. He built the Republic National Bank of New York, expanded into private banking across Switzerland and Europe, and became a go-to banker for high-net-worth clients worldwide. He also gave away a lot of money, backing medical, cultural, and religious causes around the globe.
By late 1999, Safra was in the final phase of selling his banking empire to a global conglomerate and living with Parkinson's. He had grown extremely cautious about security—so cautious he hired former Mossad personnel for round-the-clock protection. And yet, on the night of the fire, no guards were there to protect him. When firefighters reached the reinforced area where he was hiding, they urged him to open up. He refused to unlatch the door or even crack a window, terrified of what might be outside. By the time rescuers forced their way in, Safra and nurse Viviane Torrent were both gone, overcome by smoke.
What the documentary is chasing
The case has all the ingredients of an expensive nightmare: a fortified home that still failed, a contradictory insider account, and a billionaire whose fear may have sealed his fate. The film positions itself as more than rubbernecking, aiming to peel back a story about power, wealth, paranoia, and how vulnerable you can be even when you think you are the safest person in the room. The lingering question—how a man with that much protection died that way—is exactly what makes this one hard to shake.
Circle the date. If you like your true crime with high stakes and a lot to argue about, 'Murder in Monaco' is built for that.