A businessman is trying to sue an estate agent which he claims persuaded him to knock $6 million off the sale price of his mansion without revealing the buyer was Jeff Bezos.
Leo Kryss, the seller of the $79m (£60.5m) home, claims he would not have agreed to the discount had he known the second-wealthiest person in the world was behind the bid.
Mr Bezos bought the seven-bedroom house on Miami’s Indian Creek island, an exclusive gated community nicknamed “billionaire bunker”, last year.
Mr Kryss, the Brazilian co-founder of a toy and electronics company Tectoy, initially listed the house, which sports a wine cellar, library and theatre, for $85m.
He is now suing Douglas Elliman, an American brokerage, who handled both sides of the sale, for allegedly concealing the Amazon founder’s identity.
An offer then came in shortly after Mr Bezos paid $68m for the neighbouring property, so Mr Kryss suspected that the billionaire was behind the bid, The Wall Street Journal reported.
But a Douglas Elliman employee allegedly reassured Mr Kryss over the phone that Mr Bezos was not behind the bid and that his client would not pay over $79m for the property.
Mr Kryss agreed to sell the property at a discount of $6m but later learned that he had sold the property to an entity linked to Mr Bezos.
In a complaint filed to a Miami court, Mr Kryss states that knowing about Mr Bezos’s involvement would have been “highly material to his negotiations and his decision on the ultimate sales price”.
Dana Clayton, Mr Kryss’s lawyer, said: “Douglas Elliman failed to fulfil [its] duties to our client. [It] knew or should have known who the ultimate beneficial purchaser was and misrepresented that very important fact to our client.”
Both the listing agents have denied having knowledge of the buyer’s identity, according to the legal documents.
A hearing is scheduled for October 11.
The Telegraph has approached Jeff Bezos and Amazon for comment.
It is not uncommon for celebrities to conceal their identities when buying a property, often in a bid to protect their privacy and done by purchasing it through a trust.
Indian Creek is on a man-made island in Miami’s Biscayne Bay that was ranked the most expensive neighbourhood in the US in 2001.
Mr Bezos bought a third property on the island for $90m this year. His neighbours include Tom Brady, David Guetta and Ivanka Trump.
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