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. 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 co-founded Hermitage Capital Management with Beny Steinmetz and Bill Browder. The hedge fund became one of the most important investment companies in Russia and later became famous in connection with the Sergei Magnitsky affair. On 17 August 1998, Safra's Republic National Bank of New York lost 45% of its net income due its large holding of Russian bonds after the 1998 Russian financial crisis. In 1998, Safra's bank alerted the FBI and the Swiss justice about a possible money laundering scheme involving IMF money, the Republic National Bank of New York and the Republic National Bank of New York (Suisse), some other unidentified outlets, and Russian officials of both the Russian Ministry of Finance and the Russian Central Bank. The IMF funds, which Italian newspaper la Repubblica estimated at $21.4 billion, are said to have caused the Russian financial crisis of 1998. Later life and death As he approached his 60s, Safra divided his time between his homes in Monaco, Geneva, and New York City and the Villa Leopolda on the French Riviera. Weakened by Parkinson's disease, he required nursing care. On 2 December 1999, Edmond and Lily Safra gained Monegasque citizenship. In 1999, he sold his Safra Republic Holdings and Republic New York Corporation to HSBC for $10.3 billion in cash. On 31 December 1999, HSBC Private Bank became the new name for Safra's former holdings. In December 1999, Safra and nurse Vivian Torrente were suffocated by fumes in a fire deliberately lit at the billionaire's Monaco home, where he apparently felt so safe that he did not have his bodyguards stay the night. On the night of the fire, Daniel Serdet, the attorney general and chief prosecutor of Monaco, stated that Samuel Cohen, Safra's personal security chief, stated that no security guards were needed. Safra's nurse Ted Maher was arrested under