CONVERSATION

# Edmond Safra Remembered

He was paranoid, despondent, and fabulously wealthy. He loved corned beef. In December a fire swept through the 67-year-old financier's Monaco penthouse, trapping him in the bathroom and asphyxiating him. A glimpse into the life of a secretive man.

Peter Cohen
Managing Partner,
Ramius Capital Group

I remember when we were going to meet with Franklin Cole, who was chairman of Walter Heller. We got to O'Hare. So we're looking for a driver with our name. Nobody. And this was in the middle of January; it was so cold. So Edmond walks up to this limousine driver. He was always very polite, especially when he spoke to people [like drivers]. So he says, "Excuse me, sir, but could you take us downtown? Just

name your price." So the guy says, "No, I'm here to pick somebody up." So Edmond says to him, "I'd like to buy your car." The guy goes, "What? Are you serious?" Edmond says, "I'm absolutely serious. I'll pay for your car right now."

He was fully prepared to buy this guy's car if that's what it took. And the guy, in the end, consented and gave us a ride downtown. It was about $200. I think in those days a taxi ride was maybe $15 to get downtown.

He loved corned beef. Occa-

sionally when he was in New York I would have lunch with him at Kaplan's Deli on 59th Street. Whenever I would come overseas to see him, he would ask me, if it was not too much trouble, to bring some corned beef...and I would carry it to Geneva, the south of France, wherever I was meeting him.

You know, he had this ability to look at something backward. In the early 1970s, Republic was invited to participate in the backup credit for Penn Central Railroad's commercial paper. And he got a call from the then-chairman of Penn Central, thanking him for his participation. He immediately said, "Why is this man calling me? I'm a nobody. My bank is a small bank, an unimportant bank, and they must be having trouble syndicating this loan." There's something he read into that call. He pulled out of the deal, and within months Penn Central was bankrupt.

### John Gutfreund
Investment banker and former head, Salomon Brothers

Being a Middle Easterner, [he was trusted by] both the Jewish and Arab worlds. He attracted money that did not want to be identified, and his whole posture was to be extremely conservative in terms of customers' deposits.

He was very security-conscious. I think probably most refugees are, and I don't know what Edmond was a refugee from. I assume he was a refugee from Syria, from Lebanon, from Italy, from France, from Switzerland, from Brazil, from the U.S. I think the refugee mentality has two components: one, you're always a little paranoid, and two, you're probably very averse to paying taxes.

### Alice Sardell Harary
President, Council for the Rescue of Syrian Jews

In 1989, several of us from the Syrian Jewish community formed an organization to obtain the release of the 4,000 Jews in Syria

[who] were being held [there]. They were not permitted to travel. In 1992 I went to see him. I said the Syrian government was going to permit them to leave, but I didn't know if the people had the means to leave.

He didn't hesitate. Not a second. He just said not to worry. He was able to help us provide the money that enabled them to travel outside of Syria and be reunited with their families in the U.S. Nobody even knew that he gave us this money. It's just one of the mitzvahs that he did quietly.

### Ezra K. Zilkha
President, Zilkha & Sons Inc.

Tragedy. It was no way to die. I wonder what went through his head in that bathroom.

Since the last three or four years, I think this sickness [Parkinson's] must have done something to him—with all the medicines. He laughed with me, but he didn't laugh easily. He didn't look happy. Maybe he had things that worried him. Who knows what worries people? He seemed quieter, despondent.

### Henry Kissinger
Former U.S. Secretary of State

He was definitely security-conscious. More than the average billionaire, yes. I only know four or five billionaires. They all have significant security, but it's not as obtrusive as it was with Safra—almost obsessional—and it was sort of an irony that he was in part destroyed by his security-consciousness. Because he wouldn't leave his safe area.

### Professor Elie Wiesel
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

*From his eulogy for Edmond Safra*
A special man whose path led to great heights and, ultimately, to utter solitude and helplessness...who, though he knew suffering, lived a life filled with passion and joy.
—Leah Nathans
*Spiro and Holly Peterson*

50 talk february 2000

ERIC PALMA