By Deborah Acosta

Jeff Bezos made headlines last year when he paid $68 million for a 2.8-acre property in Miami's Indian Creek Village, then bought the roughly 19,000-square-foot house next door for $79 million a few months later. This year, he stunned the city by adding a third property on the island for $90 million.

Now Bezos' Indian Creek homes are in the news again as his second purchase comes under scrutiny.

The seller of the $79 million home is suing real-estate brokerage Douglas Elliman, which handled both sides of the transaction, saying the company misled him about the identity of the buyer and cost him $6 million in the process.

Leo Kryss, co-founder of Tectoy, a Brazilian toy and electronics company, paid $28 million for a waterfront property on Indian Creek Island in 2014 through T.A.M. Investments, according to property records. In May of 2023, he listed the seven-bedroom house, which has a wine cellar, library, theater and pool, for $85 million.

The next month, Bezos paid $68 million for a three-bedroom house next door to Kryss's property. When Kryss received a $79 million offer a short time later, he asked Elliman if the billionaire Amazon.com founder was behind it.

Jay Parker, Elliman's CEO of the Florida region, called Kryss personally to say that Bezos wasn't the buyer and that the purchaser wouldn't pay more than $79 million, according to a complaint filed in the circuit court of the 11th Judicial Circuit in Miami-Dade County. Kryss then agreed to sell at a 7.1% discount -- only to find out after closing that the purchaser was in fact an entity tied to Bezos, the complaint says.

Now Kryss is suing Elliman for the $6 million he believes he forfeited by not realizing Bezos was the buyer, according to people familiar with the matter. In the complaint, 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."

Elliman received a 4% commission, adding up to more than $3 million. Elliman spokesperson Samantha Feld said the company can't comment on pending litigation.

Bezos couldn't be reached for comment.

Kryss declined to comment. His lawyer, Dana Clayton of Akerman, said in a prepared statement: "Douglas Elliman failed to fulfill 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."

After the closing, Parker emailed Kryss to say that he also hadn't known the identity of the buyer, and was led to believe the property was for the family of Benny Klepach, the mayor of Indian Creek Village, who runs duty-free shops in airports across the Americas.

In a twist, Klepach's daughter Celine Klepach joined Elliman a few weeks before the closing and made a commission on the sale, according to the complaint. A person who picked up the phone at Elliman in Miami said Celine left the firm a few weeks ago.

Reached by phone, Celine said, "I wasn't involved in the deal," and referred further questions to her lawyer, Isaac Mitrani. "Celine Klepach did absolutely nothing wrong," Mitrani said.

Wealthy individuals often shield their identities throughout the process of purchasing a home, from the initial showing through the closing, according to Miami real-estate agent Danny Hertzberg of Jills Zeder Group at Coldwell Banker. "Many billionaires, when they're purchasing a property, are concerned that when the seller knows their identity they're going to want a larger number," he said.

In February of last year, Bezos announced his move to Miami from Seattle. He now owns more than four bayfront acres on Indian Creek Island, a gated community sometimes referred to as the Billionaire Bunker. The island has drawn well-known residents including Tom Brady, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump.

Write to Deborah Acosta at deborah.acosta@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 10, 2024 20:20 ET (00:20 GMT)

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