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Joseph Safra, Banker Who Was the Richest Brazilian, Dies at 82
An immigrant from Lebanon, he earned a reputation as a canny dealmaker overseeing a family banking empire reaching from São Paulo to Geneva to New York.
The banker Joseph Safra in 2002. An immigrant from Lebanon, he and his family built a private banking empire that reached from São Paulo to Geneva to New York.Credit.Lionel Cironneau/Associated Press
By Matt Sandy
Dec. 16, 2020
RIO DE JANEIRO Joseph Safra, a former immigrant from Lebanon who became Brazil’s richest person and one of the most successful bankers in the world through a lifetime of deal-making, died on Dec. 10 in São Paulo, Brazil. He was 82.
The Rio Times is an English language publication dedicated to anyone interested in Brazil and Mercosur. Beyond keeping up with national and local events, The Rio Times will also cover issues of specific interest to foreign nationals here. Our mission is to provide our readers with a broad spectrum of information and improve their understanding of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Brazil, and Mercosur.
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Joseph Safra became the world s richest banker by transforming a Brazilian lender into a global multibillion-dollar empire.
Now, after a long illness and death at 82, it falls to the next Safra generation.
What s at stake is a conglomerate which comprises Banco Safra SA, Safra National Bank of New York and Switzerland s J Safra Sarasin - firms with about $US85 billion ($112.7 billion) in banking assets. There s also a $US2.3 billion real estate portfolio, that includes the Gherkin in London and 660 Madison Avenue in New York, a stake in banana company Chiquita Brands International and a 130-room mansion in Sao Paulo.
World s richest banker whose ancestors financed camel caravans
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World s richest banker whose ancestors financed camel caravans
December 15, 2020 â 12.24pm
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JOSEPH SAFRA 1938â2020
Joseph Safra, the Lebanese-Brazilian billionaire who has died aged 82, was reputedly the worldâs richest banker â having been born into a Sephardic Jewish dynasty that had financed Levantine camel caravans in the days of the Ottoman empire.
Safraâs fortune was estimated at more than $23 billion, making him the 63rd richest person in the world as well as the richest in Brazil. It was accumulated as the patriarch of an international conglomerate of financial, industrial and real estate interests, run according to principles of prudence and discretion learned from his father Jacob.