Late last year, Jeff Bezos announced he was quitting Seattle and moving to a place where he lived as a teen: Miami. To facilitate the move, he scooped up some substantial property in the city's Indian Creek Village: $68 million for the first place, then $79 million for the house next door, then $90 million for a third spot on the island. Now the seller of that second home, the $79 million one, is suing, saying real-estate brokerage Douglas Elliman kept him in the dark about the buyer's identity despite specifically enquiring if Bezos was involved. Leo Kryss claims the alleged deception cost him $6 million, reports the Wall Street Journal.
Kryss bought the seven-bedroom property in 2014 for $28 million and listed it in May 2023 for $85 million. When Kryss was offered $79 million, he says he asked Elliman, which oversaw both sides of the transaction, if the offer came from Bezos; the Amazon founder had just purchased the property next door. Kryss says Elliman CEO Jay Parker called him and said it wasn't Bezos and the offer price was firm; Kryss agreed to knock the requested 7.1% off the sale price. Per his suit, Kryss says he found out the buyer was an entity linked to Bezos post-closing; he's seeking the $6 million he thinks he would have made had he known it was Bezos.
Kryss alleges that "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 Journal notes that Parker emailed Kryss following the sale to say he wasn't aware Bezos was the buyer and instead believed the house was going to the family of Indian Creek Village Mayor Benny Klepach. Elliman has filed a motion to dismiss that argues the purchaser—an entity called Cape Trust—did not disclose Bezos' involvement to anyone, reports the Real Deal. (More Jeff Bezos stories.)
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