Police said Ted Maher had confessed to faking an armed attack on Edmond Safra's Monaco penthouse, setting it ablaze and killing the billionaire and a fellow nurse.

In the span of a news cycle, he had been transformed from hero to villain.

Sara James, Dateline NBC: You made up the story about the intruders out of whole cloth to make yourself look like a hero.

Ted Maher: Right.

Sara James, Dateline NBC: That's the confession you signed.

Ted Maher: Yes.

Ted repeated that story numerous times to authorities investigating the case.

He even walked police through his actions, recreating the crime inside the burned out penthouse.

And yet, whispers of a larger conspiracy lingered.

Bismuth: If you talk to my people in the Jewish community in Monaco and some of the body guards, they think that the case was closed too quickly without really checking what happened.

Ted Maher had spent more than three years in jail when his case came to trial in 2002.

In court, Ted’s lawyers didn't deny that he'd faked the attack and started the fire, but argued that he'd never meant to harm anyone -- least of all Edmond Safra, whom he'd been desperately trying to impress.

Ted himself called the entire affair a "terrible accident."

In the end, the story that had started out as an international whodunit concluded with a swift conviction and a 10-year sentence for deadly arson.

But that decisive ending was actually just the beginning, Ted Maher says today.

For him, the conviction was the start of a long, uphill struggle to clear his name.

Ted Maher: That's why I am here before you today, to tell the truth. And I waited almost eight years of my life. Can you imagine not being able to speak to your family and not being able to tell your family the truth?

The truth, Ted says, has nothing to do with the confession he signed. That story, he says, was made up by police while he was recovering in the hospital.

Ted Maher: They said you did this, you killed Vivian Torrente, you have killed Mr. Safra and I said no I haven’t and they continued to grill me. You know, making accusations about me that I was a murderer, an assassin. That I had ulterior motives.

Sara James, Dateline NBC: But somewhere in all of this, a confession took shape.

Ted Maher: You want to call that a confession?

Ted says that police presented him with a document written in French -- a language he can't read-- and told him to sign, or else.

Ted Maher: I did not even know what I was signing. I did not know what this document was until after it was translated.

Ted says he signed that so-called confession because the Monaco authorities were holding his wife Heidi. She'd jumped on a plane to see him, leaving their three children back in New York.

Ted Maher: The French police came up and said "you will sign this or your wife will not leave the country.”

Back in 2000, Ted’s wife told Dateline that while her husband was in the hospital, she was subjected to a three-day police interrogation.

Heidi Maher: I answered anything they wanted, provided anything they wanted to the police in the hopes of seeing him. I just needed to see him ... to make sure he was OK.

Monaco authorities tell Dateline that Ted Maher always had access to an English translator.

But as evidence that the French confession was made up, Ted insists that the alleged motive is completely illogical. He had no reason for false heroics. He'd just been put on permanent staff, his well-paying job was secure.

Ted Maher: I already have everything that I wanted in life, could possibly want in life. And I want to kill my employer? Or show myself as a hero? What's the purpose? I didn't have--

Sara James, Dateline NBC: You say it makes no sense.

Ted Maher: I don't have to say. It doesn't make any sense. There is no reason. There's no rationale for it.

But remember, during his trial Ted’s own lawyers admitted he'd faked the attack and started the fire.

Ted now claims that he went along with the story because his defense attorneys assured him that he'd get little jail time if appeared cooperative.

Ted Maher: I was told that "Don't worry, Ted. Go with this because if you don't, in the end, they're going to condemn you. And you're going to go to jail for a very long period of time. And you'll never see your family again."

Sara James, Dateline NBC: You're saying your Monaco lawyers instructed you to go along with the idea that you'd faked the stories of the intruders.

Ted Maher: Following this so called drafted confession, yes.

Sara James, Dateline NBC: Your lawyers instructed you to do this?

Ted Maher: Yes.

Ted's Monaco lawyers say they never suggested he should lie in court.

But now, eight years later, Ted’s version of events has changed again.

What really happened the night Edmond Safra died?

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