Businessman who sold luxury mansion at discount price of £61m sues estate agent after he learns buyer's identity
12 September 2024, 09:15
A businessman who sold his mansion with a discount of nearly £5 million is suing the estate agent after he learned the identity of the buyer.
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Leo Kryss, a Brazilian toys and electronics mogul, put his home in the luxury Florida neighbourhood of Indian Creek up for sale for $85 million (around £65 million) in May last year.
The seven-bed mansion attracted a bid slightly below the asking price at $79 million (around £61 million).
Mr Kryss did not know who the bidder was, but suspected that it might be Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, as he had recently bought the house next door and might want to link the two properties.
Mr Bezos is currently the world's second-richest man, with a net worth of around $203 billion (£155 billion).
But an employee of Douglas Elliman, the luxury real estate brokerage firm that handled both sides of the sale, told Mr Kryss that Mr Bezos was not the bidder.
Read more: Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez get engaged after 'proposal on his $500m superyacht'
The estate agent also said over the phone that the bidder would not increase his offer of $79 million.
Mr Kryss agreed to the $6 million (£4.6 million) discount, and the sale went through.
But he is said to have been shocked to learn later that he had sold his property to an entity linked to Mr Bezos - and is suing Douglas Elliman.
Mr Kryss said in a legal filing that if he had known that the buyer was effectively Mr Bezos, he would have been less likely to consent to the reduced sales price, the Wall Street Journal reported.
His lawsuit read: "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".
Mr Kryss' lawyer said: "Douglas Elliman failed to fulfil 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."
Douglas Elliman declined to comment.
Indian Creek is an island in Biscayne Bay, between Miami and Miami Beach.
It has around 40 homes, with residents including Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, NFL star Tom Brady and DJ David Guetta.
