The American nurse of Edmond Safra, the billionaire banker who died in a fire that ravaged his Monaco penthouse, was charged in connection with his employer's death yesterday after admitting to arson.
The Monaco prosecutor, Mr Daniel Serdet, said Mr Ted Maher (41), who was detained on Sunday, was charged with arson causing death.
The prosecutor said it "was not his intention to cause the death of anyone. He wanted to seem a hero in the eyes of Mr Safra."
He also had a conflict to settle with another staff member, Mr Serdet said. Mr Maher, who had been employed by Mr Safra for five months, told investigators he had fabricated a story in which armed intruders stabbed him and then set fire to the billionaire banker's penthouse on Friday.
The former member of the US army Green Berets special forces said he was on tranquillisers and other self-prescribed medication while employed by Mr Safra and was at odds with the banker's chief nurse, identified as Sonia, Mr Serdet said.
"He fabricated the story about the two armed attackers and then set fire to a trash can to raise the alarm," the prosecutor said, adding that police had found a large quantity of tranquillisers in Mr Maher's belongings.
Mr Maher was taken into custody after leaving Monaco's Princess Grace hospital, where he had been recovering from two knife wounds he claimed were inflicted by the attackers.
His detention came as the 67-year-old Lebanese-born banker who suffered from Parkinson's disease was buried in Geneva in a ceremony attended by about 1,000 people.
Mr Safra's Brazilian wife, Lily, his sisters and close relatives were joined at the funeral by Nobel peace laureate Elie Wiesel, French fashion designer Hubert de Givenchy and Prince Saddrudin Aga Khan.
Also killed in the arson attack was Ms Viviane Torrent, another nurse. She and Mr Safra suffocated to death after seeking refuge in one of the penthouse's bathrooms.
Though firefighters managed to enter the burning apartment, Mr Safra refused to leave the bathroom even though his wife reached him on a cell phone and begged him to come out. The banker, obsessed with security, had reportedly told acquaintances he had received threats to his life.
Mr Maher became the prime suspect in the case after police questioned him several times at the weekend and he gave contradictory statements concerning the attack, police said.