The business mogul who sold Amazon founder and billionaire Jeff Bezos a waterfront mansion in greater Miami for $79 million last year alleges the brokerage that facilitated the deal cost him millions of dollars by concealing Bezos’ identity.
In a lawsuit, Leo Kryss and his attorneys allege that Douglas Elliman, the brokerage that handled both the buyer and seller sides of the 2023 transaction in Indian Creek Village, Florida, breached its contract with Kryss by not disclosing the buyer's identity.
The suit was filed July 15 in the circuit court of the 11th Judicial Circuit in Miami-Dade County. Kryss is seeking at least $750,000 in damages.
“Douglas Elliman failed to fulfill their duties to our client,” the attorneys representing Kryss said in a statement to CoStar News. “The facts, as set forth in our complaint, speak for themselves; 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. Attorneys representing the brokerage filed a motion to dismiss the suit on Aug. 26, arguing that neither Parker nor either agent working with Kryss had knowledge of Bezos’ identity.
Kryss, co-founder of Brazilian toy and electronics company TecToy, purchased the property at 12 Indian Creek Island Road for $28 million through T.A.M Investments in 2014, according to public records. In May 2023, he listed the house for $85 million with two Douglas Elliman agents representing him, the suit alleges.
Around the same time, Jeff Bezos was making his own moves on the exclusive island where the property is located. In June 2023, he purchased the property next door to 12 Indian Creek Island Road for $68 million, according to the Wall Street Journal, which earlier reported the suit.
Unidentified buyer
That’s why, when Kryss received an offer on his house from an unidentified buyer without representation for $79 million in August, he had questions.
“Kryss believed that it was highly material to his negotiations and his decision on the ultimate sales price of the home to know whether Bezos was interested in his home and if Bezos was attempting to anonymously acquire the home in order to assemble it with the adjoining property that Bezos already purchased,” the lawsuit alleges.
In other words, Kryss and his attorneys are arguing that Douglas Elliman should have known the buyer’s identity, and Kryss was entitled to that information, especially because it would have allowed him to raise his asking price.
But both listing agents denied having such knowledge of the buyer’s identity, according to the suit.
In addition to conversations with his agents, Kryss alleges he also heard from Jay Phillip Parker, the brokerage’s CEO of the Florida region, who assured him that the undisclosed buyer was not Bezos, and that the buyer was not willing to pay more than $79 million for the house.
The lawsuit argues that those conversations led Kryss to accept the reduced-price offer, in turn earning the brokerage a 4% commission, equal to more than $3 million.
By November, though, Kryss learned that the buyer was actually Bezos.
"The broker breached its duties and, at a minimum, acted negligently in making affirmative representations that Bezos was not the prospective buyer of the home," Kryss' attorneys allege in the lawsuit.
A hearing is scheduled for Oct. 11, according to court filings.