Brazilian mogul Leo Kryss sold his waterfront estate on Indian Creek Island to billionaire Jeff Bezos for $79 million last year. He had enlisted Douglas Elliman to sell the property, and the brokerage would get a 4 percent total commission if it also represented the buyer.
But he didn’t know he was selling the property to Bezos, the billionaire founder of Amazon. In fact, he said he was told the opposite — even after Bezos bought the neighboring property first for $68 million. Elliman Florida CEO Jay Parker insisted that Bezos was not behind the entity that had offered Kryss $79 million, an email in court records shows.
Who knew what and when is at the center of a lawsuit filed this summer against Douglas Elliman, which alleges that the brokerage breached its duties to deal honestly and fairly with Kryss’ company, Tendencia Asset Management, and that it “failed to use skill, care and diligence” with respect to listing and selling Kryss’ home at 12 Indian Creek Island Road.
Kryss claims he was persuaded to sell his property for $6 million less than the asking price because of Parker’s alleged misrepresentations, according to the complaint, which was filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court by Akerman attorneys Dana Clayton and Lorayne Perez. In a statement provided to The Real Deal, Clayton said that Elliman violated Florida law and the listing agreement.
Douglas Elliman declined to comment.
Kryss, who co-founded the Brazilian electronics and toy company Tectoy, hired top Elliman broker Dina Goldentayer and Danilo Tavares, also an agent with the brokerage, to list the property in May of last year. Kryss wanted to sell the company that owned the real estate, a Bahamian entity, for $85 million because he thought he would net a higher profit, according to the complaint.
The guard-gated island, considered a billionaires’ bunker, is home to Tom Brady, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, and DJ and producer David Guetta’s future mansion, as well as Eddie Lampert and Carl Icahn.
In June 2023, Bezos paid $68 million for the waterfront property next door at 11 Indian Creek Island Road. Though he was rumored to be purchasing that property as early as May of that year, sources told The Real Deal, his identity as the buyer was revealed on Aug. 11, 2023.
A month later, Kryss and an entity, Cape Trust, entered into a purchase agreement for his home at 12 Indian Creek Island Road. Parker said that Indian Creek Mayor Benny Klepach, who allegedly acted as the straw buyer, had told Parker that the property was for Klepach’s family.
“Parker and the broker failed to disclose the source of the information or take any further steps to confirm the accuracy of this statement,” according to the lawsuit.
Elliman had recently brought on Klepach’s daughter, Celine, as a sales associate. She ended up receiving a commission on the deal “despite not having been involved in the transaction until then,” the lawsuit alleges.
Elliman’s commission was about $3.2 million, the majority of which it would likely pay out to its agents, Goldentayer, Tavares and Klepach’s daughter. Celine Klepach is no longer with Elliman, state licensing records show.
In Elliman’s pending motion to dismiss, filed by Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP, the brokerage claims that Cape Trust kept Bezos’ identity from everyone, including Elliman, Parker and the agents involved in the deal. Douglas Elliman said it did not have a duty to investigate the trust as a transaction broker.
“Even if the Douglas Elliman agents and its Florida CEO did have such knowledge, it did not materially affect the value of the property,” according to Elliman’s motion.
Bezos, the third richest person in the world with a net worth of nearly $200 billion, also acquired a third property at 28 Indian Creek Island Road. In all, he spent $234 million for the three Indian Creek properties.