After learning that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was behind the entity that had purchased his Indian Creek Island home at a $6 million discount, homeseller Leo Kryss was not pleased with the brokerage, which double-ended the deal.
Whether it’s refining your business model, mastering new technologies, or discovering strategies to capitalize on the next market surge, Inman Connect New York will prepare you to take bold steps forward. The Next Chapter is about to begin. Be part of it. Join us and thousands of real estate leaders Jan. 22-24, 2025.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has snatched up a number of high-ticket properties in Miami’s Indian Creek Village in the last couple of years, staking his claim in the gated, man-made barrier island.
First, he bought a $68 million 2.8-acre property around August of 2023. Next, was a $79 million, 19,000-square-foot estate next door. This year, he bought a third property for $90 million on the island that is aptly nicknamed “billionaire bunker.”
But after negotiations were through and Bezos’ identity was made public, the homeseller of the $79 million property was not thrilled, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. The seller is now suing Douglas Elliman, which double-ended the transaction, for misleading him about the buyer’s identity while allowing him to accept an offer for $6 million less than the asking price from someone whose net worth is currently just shy of $200 billion, according to Forbes.
The seller of the property was Leo Kryss, co-founder of Brazilian toy and electronics company Tectoy. He originally bought the home for $28 million in 2014 via T.A.M. Investments, records show. In May of 2023, he put the seven-bedroom home on the market for $85 million.
By June 2023, Bezos had bought the $68 million property next door to Kryss’ listing. When Kryss then received the $79 million offer, he asked his agent at Douglas Elliman if Bezos was the potential buyer.
According to a complaint filed in the circuit court of the 11th Judicial Circuit in Miami-Dade County, Jay Parker, who serves as CEO of Elliman’s Florida region, told Kryss on a phone call that the buyer was not Bezos. He also said the buyer was unwilling to pay any more than $79 million. With this knowledge, Kryss accepted the offer, a 7.1 percent discount from the asking price. After closing, however, Kryss learned that the buyer was actually an entity tied to Bezos.
Kryss is suing Elliman for the $6 million he feels he should have received in the sale, knowing that Bezos could afford it. Kryss claims in the complaint 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.”
Douglas Elliman received a 4 percent commission, or more than $3 million on the deal, with agents Dina Goldentayer, Danilo Tavares and Celine Klepach representing the seller and buyer. The brokerage declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Kryss’ lawyer, Dana Clayton of Akerman, said in a 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.”
Parker emailed Kryss after closing to say that he had not known the buyer’s identity. In fact, he said he was misled himself into thinking that the property would be going to the family of Indian Creek Village Mayor Benny Klepach, who runs duty-free airport shops across the country.
An added complication to the case is that Klepach’s daughter, Celine Klepach, had signed onto Elliman a few weeks before closing and received a portion of the sale’s commission, according to the complaint. According to Douglas Elliman’s Miami office, Celine Klepach left the firm a few weeks ago.
The younger Klepach told The WSJ, “I wasn’t involved in the deal.” Her lawyer, Isaac Mitrani, told the news outlet she “did absolutely nothing wrong.”
It is common practice for high-net-worth individuals and celebrities to try and prevent their identities from becoming public during a real estate transaction through the use of shell companies or anonymous LLCs. The U.S. Treasury Department recently finalized new rules for reporting transaction details on all-cash residential real estate sales — including identities of sellers behind nameless shell companies — to help curb money laundering.
Bezos announced in February of 2023 that he would be relocating from Seattle, where he first launched Amazon, to Miami. On Indian Creek Island, Bezos joins other billionaires like Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, Tom Brady, and Carl Icahn.
Update: This story was updated to clarify the Douglas Elliman agents involved in the transaction.
Get Inman’s Luxury Lens Newsletter delivered right to your inbox. A weekly deep dive into the biggest news in the world of high-end real estate delivered every Friday. Click here to subscribe.
