A Brazilian toy magnate is suing the real estate agent who convinced him to knock $6 million off the asking price of his home without telling him the buyer was the world’s second-richest man.
Amazon boss Jeff Bezos was in the midst of a home-buying spree last year when he was drawn to the 19,000-square-foot mansion for sale for $85 million on Miami’s Indian Creek Island.
The private island, dubbed the “Billionaires’ Bunker,” counts Ivanka Trump and Tom Brady among its 41 addresses, and Bezos just purchased the house next door for $68 million.
Owner Leo Kryss accepted a $79 million offer and is suing real estate broker Douglas Elliman for the missing $6 million, alleging the real estate company concealed the identity of the billionaire buyer and told him $79 million was the final offer.
“It was critical to his negotiations and his decision on the final sale price to know whether Bezos was attempting to anonymously acquire the house to join it with the adjoining property,” the suit states.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos had just purchased the house on the left for $68 million when he made an offer on the house next door, which was listed for $85 million in May of last year.
The world’s second-richest man, pictured with his wife Lauren Sanchez, offered $6 million below the asking price without revealing his identity.
Bezos, whose current fortune exceeds $200 billion, had already attracted headlines with his purchase of the house at 11 Indian Creek Island Road for $68 million in June last year.
Kryss says she suspected the offer on her home at No. 12 she received just weeks later had come from the owner of the Washington Post, but that Elliman’s Florida chief executive, Jay Parker, flatly denied it when questioned.
Kryss, who made his own fortune with Brazilian electronics company Tectoy, had bought the seven-bedroom home for $28 million in 2014.
But he was confident its wine cellar, library, theatre and swimming pool would help secure the $85 million asking price when it went on sale in May last year.
The 124-acre island had for decades seen skyrocketing home prices fueled by Miami’s growing tech industry, and the $68 million home next door had sold for just $1.4 million in 1982.
The island is only accessible via a single guarded bridge and is protected by a private police force that patrols the community 24 hours a day, on foot, by air and on land.
Residents enjoy access to an exclusive country club and a private 18-hole golf course, while Miami’s South Beach is just eight miles away.
With a median home price of $29.5 million and only 41 homes, Indian Creek has been called “the most exclusive township in the world.”
Brazilian toy mogul Leo Kryss, pictured with his family, says real estate agent Douglas Elliman flatly denied Bezos was behind the purchase when he raised his suspicions.
Kryss is now suing the real estate agent for the $6 million he discounted from her asking price.
Bezos owns multiple properties on Indian Creek Island, along with 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 celebrities such as Jay-Z and Beyoncé, as well as current residents such as 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 bought his mansion in 1997 for $7.5 million, while Colombian banker Jaime Gilinski assembled five properties to build a compound for his family.
It was only after Kryss accepted the reduced offer that she discovered Bezos owned the company that made it.
Six months later, the Amazon boss bought his third home on the island, paying $90 million for a house that had cost just $2.5 million in 1998.
“A lot of billionaires, when they buy a property, worry that when the seller knows their identity, they’ll want a higher figure,” said Miami real estate agent Danny Hertzberg. WSJ newspaper.
His purchase was simply one more addition to a property portfolio valued at more than $600 million spread across New York, Washington DC, Beverly Hills and West Texas, among others.
In 2022, the billionaire added a private estate in Hawaii to his collection that spans 14 acres and is surrounded by dormant lava fields.
The three-building property, located on picturesque La Perouse Bay on Valley Isle in Maui, Hawaii, cost the former Amazon chief an estimated $78 million.
Last year, he added a luxury apartment in Manhattan to the series of properties he already owned on New York City’s exclusive Fifth Avenue.
The businessman bought five properties over the course of three years to create a de facto mega mansion.
Miami’s Indian Creek Island overlooking Biscayne Bay is known as the “billionaires’ bunker” thanks to its mega-rich residents, who 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 “billionaires’ bunker,” to $237 million.
His latest home sits next to extravagant mansions owned by real estate developer Jeff Soffer and NFL legend Tom Brady.
The Amazon mogul plans to live in the home he recently purchased in an off-market transaction while he tears down the pair of mansions, according to Bloomberg
In 2016, he invested $23 million in a former textile museum in the upscale Kalorama neighborhood of Washington, D.C., and also acquired a $5 million property across the street that had a direct line of sight to the former museum property.
Douglas Elliman, which acted for both buyer and seller in the sale of Kryss’s home, received a four percent commission on the sale, equivalent to about $3 million. WSJ newspaper reported.
A company spokesman said he would not comment on the upcoming case filed in Miami-Dade County’s 11th Judicial Circuit.
But Kryss’s attorney, Dana Clayton, said “Douglas Elliman failed to meet its obligations to our client.”
“They knew, or should have known, who the ultimate beneficial purchaser was and they misrepresented that very important fact to our client,” he added.