Miami man sues realtor for $6m after studying identification of residence purchaser
An electronics tycoon is suing the realtor who persuaded him to knock $6million off the asking price for his home without telling him that the buyer was the world’s second richest man.
Amazon boss Jeff Bezos was in the middle of a house-buying spree last year when he was attracted by the 19,000 square foot mansion for sale at $85million on Miami’s Indian Creek island.
The private island, dubbed the ‘Billionaire Bunker’ boasts Ivanka Trump and Tom Brady among its 41 addresses, and Bezos had just snapped up the home next door for $68 million.
Owner Leo Kryss accepted an offer of $79 million and is suing relator Douglas Elliman for the missing $6 million, claiming that the real estate company withheld the billionaire buyer’s identity and told him that $79 million was the final offer.
‘It was highly material to his negotiations and his decision on the ultimate sales price to know whether Bezos was attempting to anonymously acquire the home in order to assemble it with the adjoining property,’ the lawsuit claims.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos had just bought the house on the left for $68 million when made an offer for the house next door, which was listed for $85 million in May last year
The world’s second richest man, pictured with wife Lauren Sanchez, offered $6 million under the asking price without revealing his identity
Bezos, who is currently worth more than $200 billion, had already attracted headlines with his $68 million purchase of the home at 11 Indian Creek Island Road in June last year.
Kryss claims he suspected that the offer on his home at number 12 just weeks later had come from the Washington Post owner, but that Elliman’s Florida CEO Jay Parker flatly denied it when asked.
Kryss, who made his own fortune from the Brazilian electronics company Tectoy, had bought the seven-bedroom home for $28 million in 2014.
But he was confident its wine cellar, library, theater and pool, would help secure its $85 million asking price when it was listed in May last year.
The 124-acre island had seen decades of rocketing house prices fueled by Miami’s burgeoning tech industry, and the $68 million house next door had gone for just $1.4 million in 1982.
The island is only accessible by a single, guarded bridge and is protected by a private police force that patrols the community around-the-clock by foot, sky and land.
Residents enjoy access to an exclusive country club and private 18-hole golf course while Miami’s South Beach is just eight miles away.
With a median house price of $29.5 million and just 41 homes, Indian Creek has been branded ‘the world’s most exclusive municipality.’
Brazilian toy tycoon Leo Kryss, pictured alongside his family, claims realtor Douglas Elliman flatly denied that Bezos was behind the purchase when he raised his suspicions
Bezos owns multiple properties on the island of Indian Creek, alongside retired NFL star Tom Brady and former First Daughter Ivanka Trump
The privately owned residential enclave has been a magnet for billionaires, celebrities, and power couples thanks to its privacy and security
The area has previously attracted the likes of Jay-Z and Beyoncé, as well as current residents including investor Carl Icahn and Jared Kushner.
Kushner and former First Daughter Ivanka Trump purchased their home for $24 million in April 2021 and spent more than two years renovating it.
Carl Icahn reportedly purchased his mansion in 1997 for $7.5 million, while Colombian banker Jaime Gilinski assembled five properties to build his family a compound.
It was only after Kryss agreed to the reduced offer that he found out Bezos was the owner of the company that made it.
Six months later the Amazon boss bought his third home on the island when he paid $90 million for a home that had gone for just $2.5 million in 1998.
‘Many billionaires, when they’re purchasing a property, are concerned that when the seller knows their identity they’re going to want a larger number,’ Miami real-estate agent Danny Hertzberg told the WSJ.
His purchase was just another addition to a property portfolio worth more than $600 million spread across New York, Washington D.C., Beverly Hills and West Texas among others.
In 2022, the billionaire added a private Hawaii estate that spans 14 acres and is surrounded by dormant lava fields to his collection.
The three-building estate, situated on the picturesque La Perouse Bay on Valley Isle in Maui, Hawaii, set the ex-Amazon head back an estimated $78 million.
The year before he added a plush Manhattan apartment to the string of properties he already owned on the high-end Fifth Avenue in New York City.
The businessman bought up five properties over the course of three years to form a de facto mega mansion.
The Miami’s Indian Creek Island overlooking Biscayne Bay is famously known as ‘Billionaire Bunker’ thanks to its mega rich residents, which are a mix of celebrities and business moguls
In April Bezos splurged $90 million on a third mansion on Indian Creek Island, bringing his total investment in the area, known as the ‘Billionaire Bunker,’ to $237 million
His latest home abuts extravagant mansions owned by real estate developer Jeff Soffer and NFL legend Tom Brady
The Amazon tycoon plans to live in the house that he recently purchased in an off-market transaction while tearing down the pair of mansions, according to Bloomberg
In 2016 he dropped a cool $23 million on a former textile museum in the exclusive Kalorama neighborhood of Washington, DC, also snapping up a $5 million property across the street which had a direct line of sight into the former museum property.
Douglas Elliman, who were acting for both the buyer and the seller in Kryss’s home sale received a four percent commission on the sale, equal to about $3 million, the WSJ reported.
A company spokesperson said it would not comment on the forthcoming case filed in the 11th Judicial Circuit in Miami-Dade County.
But Kryss’s lawyer Dana Clayton said that ‘Douglas Elliman failed to fulfill their duties to our client’.
‘They knew, or should have known, who the ultimate beneficial purchaser was and misrepresented that very important fact to our client,’ she added.
