After Monaco arson conviction, Ted Maher faces New Mexico murder plot case
A Monaco fire that killed billionaire banker Edmond Safra has led to a second conviction for the same man, now known as Jon Green, in a New Mexico murder plot case.
A man once convicted in Monaco in the fire that killed billionaire banker Edmond Safra and nurse Vivian Torrente later changed his name to Jon Green and was convicted again, this time in New Mexico for a murder-for-hire plot targeting his estranged wife, Dr. Kim Lark.
Safra died in the Monaco penthouse fire on Dec. 3, 1999, a death that drew international attention because of his enormous wealth and his prominence as a philanthropist. Forbes reported at the time that Safra owned 31 million Republic New York shares, worth about $2.2 billion, and held a 21% direct stake in Safra Republic Holdings worth about $1 billion. Early Reuters reporting also noted that Safra suffered from Parkinson’s disease, adding to the public fascination and speculation that surrounded the case for years.
Ted Maher, then a nurse, was sentenced by a Monaco court to 10 years in prison in December 2002. He initially told police that intruders had been involved, later admitted that he started the fire, and said he did not intend to kill Safra. CBS News correspondent Erin Moriarty covered the Monaco case in 2002 and has returned to the story as the New Mexico case has unfolded.
The new case brought a different legal system into play. Prosecutors said Green was convicted in March 2025 of solicitation to commit first-degree murder in a plot against Lark, his wife and then-estranged spouse. He was sentenced on June 17, 2025, to nine years in prison. In May 2026, the New Mexico Court of Appeals upheld that conviction, keeping the case alive as a rare example of a defendant whose name, location and legal status changed, but whose history of violent conduct did not disappear.
The Safra fire still matters because it shows how wealth and cross-border legal systems can slow accountability and cloud the public record. A billionaire banker’s death in Monaco, a name change, and a later murder plot in New Mexico now sit on the same timeline, making Green’s case less a closed chapter than a study in how identity and jurisdiction can obscure responsibility for decades.
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