Murder, Mystery, Intrigue and €500m

We were invited to lunch yesterday at a friend’s house which overlooks the bay in Villefranche and no, it isn't the house in the picture. It was a lovely sunny day and the view from the terrace was spectacular, overlooking the prime real estate area of Cap Ferrat. I’d passed Cap Ferrat in a taxi some 28 years ago as a brand new, bushy-tailed and ever-so-enthusiastic salesman for IBM and I thought, without knowing anything about the area that it was definitely a place I would buy a house if I could ever afford it. I didn't know it then, but it is THE place to have a house on the Riviera.

Much  of the talk on the terrace was about a large property, surrounded by acres of land which stood in the distance, almost acting as a gateway to the Cap. Even from our vantage point a couple of miles away you could see the manicured lawns and lines of Cyprus trees, but it was the vast extent of the grounds which defied belief. Our hosts told us that the house had recently beeen sold (true) and that it was Bill Gates who had sold it (untrue). Here is the real story of Villa Leopolda.

Until recently, the house (it’s almost a crime to call it a ‘house’) was in the hands of the Safra family who have provided one of the most intriguing stories on the Riviera for the last 10 years.

Edmond Safra, of Lebanese Jewish origins, along with his father, founded a number of banks. It’s strange to think of individuals owning banks, it’s normally corporations, but the Safras opened banks in Switzerland, Brazil and the US, where, at one stage their bank was number three in the New York area behind Citi and Chase. So they were worth quite a few bob.

By the mid 80’s, Edmond Safra had taken over the reigns from his father and was now king pin and living in Monaco and worth some €2.5b. Monaco was just right for the Safras as the principality is virtually crime free (well visible crime) and you don’t pay taxes. It is a highly secure environment with cameras everywhere and so Edmond Safra and his wife, Lily, lived in safe splendour in their hugely expensive apartment block. Edmond developed Parkinson's disease and had eight nurses and several other servants at his beck and call, looking after his every need, however, on Dec 3^rd 1999 a fire broke out and Edmond died in the blaze. One of the nurses, a Ted Maher, was charged with starting the fire and a lengthy legal battle started. It took 3 years for him to come to trial and eventually he confessed. It was dubbed as ‘the trial of the century’ and there are still stories about the trial being ‘fixed’ and the dubious nature of Maher’s confession. In any event, Mrs Safra became an extraordinarily wealthy widow with a fortune now estimated at some €3b.

One of the assets she ‘picked up’ was Villa Leopolda, which is the house we stared at from our friend’s terrace. It is probably the best property on the whole of the Riviera and if money was no object (and you like that sort of thing – see picture at top), it’s just the sort of pad you’d go for…….as a wealthy Russian did in August of this year. Although there are rumours to the contrary, he reputedly slapped €500m cash on the table and poor old Mrs Safra had no option but to take the money and run. Now the villa is probably worth no more than maybe €100m, or at a stretch €150m, but these Russians just don’t want any of those nasty little gazumpers coming in and spoiling their deal and so the ‘rather generous’ offer was made and accepted, which made Villa Leopolda the most expensive 'house' on the planet.

The thing is – nobody had ever heard of this Russian. Well nobody down here. He wasn’t in the papers. He didn’t own a football club. He was just a nobody with the odd €500m to spare.

And Mrs Safra? Well she’s probably sitting in one of her other properties hoping another ‘generous’ Russian, with more money than sense will turn up at the door with another wad of dosh.

http://www.overseaspropertymall.com/regions/european-property/french-property/is-villa-leopolda-the-most-expensive-home-ever/