Photo: NIKLAS HALLE'N / AFP / Getty Images
A Florida man who sold his $85 million mansion on Miami's Indian Creek Island for a bargain is suing the realtor who persuaded him to knock $6 million off the asking price without telling him that the buyer was the world's second richest man, Jeff Bezos.
Cofounder of Brazilian toy company Tectoy and homeowner, Leo Kryss, accepted a reduced "final" offer of $79 million for his 19,000 square foot mansion he had listed for $86 million on the private island, dubbed the 'Billionaire Bunker.'
Once Kryss found out the buyer was Amazon boss Jeff Bezos, he's crying foul 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.
According to Florida law, Section 475.278, Florida Statutes, "All licensees have a legal obligation to disclose all known facts that materially affect the value of residential real property and are not readily observable to the buyer."
However, it is common for high-net-worth home buyers to conceal their identity to avoid getting gouged, according to a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker.
Bezos was in the midst of a buying spree on the exclusive island snapping up three properties near Ivanka Trump and Tom Brady.
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 the 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.