The guy who sold his Miami mansion to Jeff Bezos for $79 million is really angry he didn't charge more for it
The seller of the Miami-Dade County mansion is suing the brokerage involved for not revealing the buyer.
The property was initially listed by Leo Kryss for $85 million.
Kryss claims that the withholding of Bezos' identity from him cost him $6 million.
Leo Kryss sold Jeff Bezos a $79 million Miami-area mansion. Now Kryss is filing a lawsuit because he thinks he could have sold it for more, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.
Kryss, a cofounder of the Brazilian toy company Tectoy, had listed his seven-bedroom mansion in Indian Creek, which is in Florida's Miami-Dade County, for $85 million in May 2023. The property included a home theater, wine cellar, library, and pool, and neighbored a $68 million three-bedroom house that Bezos purchased in June 2023.
When Kryss was approached with an offer for the property, he had a sneaking suspicion that his new neighbor was behind the sale. The seller said he heard from Jay Parker, Douglas Elliman's CEO of brokerage in the Florida region, who assured Kryss that the Amazon founder was not the buyer and that the buyer would not pay more than $79 million, The Wall Street Journal reported.
After Kryss sold his mansion for $79 million — $6 million below its list price — he learned that the buyer was, in fact, connected to Bezos.
Kryss claimed that knowing Bezos' intention to acquire adjacent properties would have been "highly material" to his decision-making and that it ultimately cost him $6 million, according to a complaint filed in Miami-Dade County that the Journal viewed. Kryss is suing Douglas Elliman, which received a commission of over $3 million for handling the property sale.
Douglas Elliman's Parker said in an email to Kryss that he was also unaware of Bezos' identity as the buyer and believed the property was being purchased by the family of Benny Klepach, the mayor of Indian Creek Village, the Journal reported.
Klepach's daughter, Celine, joined Elliman before the sale closed and earned a commission on the property sale. While Celine Klepach has since left the firm, she and her lawyer denied her involvement in the deal, the Journal reported.
It is not uncommon for high-net-worth buyers to conceal their identities to avoid sellers charging higher price markups, Danny Hertzberg, a real-estate agent at Jills Zeder Group at Coldwell Banker, told the Journal.
Indian Creek, also known as the "Billionaire Bunker," is an exclusive village on a private island in Biscayne Bay. It is known for its ultrawealthy residents, including Bezos, the former NFL star Tom Brady, and Jared Kushner, a former White House advisor and Ivanka Trump's husband. A total of 41 property lots are wrapped around the Indian Creek Golf Club at the center of the 300-acre island, which doesn't have beach access.
The island was ranked the most expensive US city in 2021 by Zillow and features heavy security. Bezos owns three properties on the island, with the latest purchase in April costing $90 million.
Kryss did not respond to requests for comment sent outside regular business hours. Douglas Elliman declined to comment.
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