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Edmond J. Safra ((アラビア語:ادموند يعقوب صفرا); August 6, 1932 – December 3, 1999) was a Lebanese Brazilian〔(), ''The Guardian'', 29 October 2000.〕 Jewish banker who continued the family tradition of banking in Syria, Lebanon, Brazil and Switzerland. He married Lily Watkins. He died in a fire that attracted wide media interest and was judicially determined to be due to arson. ==Biography== The Safra family is a Mizrahi Jewish family from Aleppo, Syria.〔("Celebrities in Switzerland: Edmond Safra Biography" )〕 The Safras were engaged in the financing of trade between Aleppo, Istanbul and Alexandria.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 url=http://www.shemayisrael.co.il/orgs/ozar/safra.htm )〕 His father, Jacob Safra, had opened the J. E. Safra Bank in 1920. By the time he was sixteen, Edmond Safra was working at his father's bank and was engaged in the precious metals and foreign exchange aspects of the business. In 1949, the family moved to Italy, where he worked for a trading company in Milan. The family moved again in 1952, this time to Brazil, Edmond Safra and his father founded their first Brazilian financial institution in 1955. In 1956, Edmond Safra settled in Geneva to set up a private bank, the Trade Development Bank, which grew from an original US$1 million to US$5 billion during the 1980s. He extended his financial empire to satisfy his wealthy clients from around the world. He also founded the Republic National Bank of New York in 1966, and, later, Republic National Bank of New York (Suisse) in Geneva. Republic bank operated 80 branches in the New York area, making it the number three branch network in the metropolitan region behind Citigroup and Chase Manhattan. The sale of Trade Development Bank to American Express for more than US$450 million in 1983, turned into a legal battle between the two parties. The financier came out on top, winning a public apology from American Express for starting a smear campaign against him and US$8 million in damages, all of which he donated to charities. In 1988, he also founded Safra Republic Holdings S.A., a Luxembourg bank holding company.〔Business Week, March, 7th, 1994, "The Mystery Man of Finance, Inside the World of Billionaire Banker Edmond Safra".〕 By the early 1990s, Safra's fortune was an estimated at US$2.5 billion. He was a major philanthropist during his lifetime, and he left his wealth to the (Edmond J. Safra Philanthropic Foundation ) which supports hundreds of projects in fifty countries around the world in the areas of education, science and medicine, religion, culture and humanitarian assistance. In 1996 Safra was co-founder of Hermitage Capital Management which became one of the most important investment companies in Russia and later became famous in connection with the Sergei Magnitsky affair. As he approached his 60s, the financier divided his time between his homes in Monaco, Geneva, and New York and the Villa Leopolda on the French Riviera. Weakened by Parkinson's disease, he required nursing care. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Edmond Safra」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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