Jeff Bezos: Estate agent sued after not disclosing world’s richest man as client in $117 million sale

A businessman is suing the estate agency that persuaded him to knock nearly $9 million off the asking price for his home without telling him the buyer was ... Jeff Bezos.

Leo Kryss had advertised his Miami mansion at $126 million but accepted $117 million after agency Douglas Elliman said it was the final offer.

The Brazilian electronics tycoon is now suing the firm for the $9 million difference and claims it withheld the buyer’s identity.

Mr Bezos, the world’s richest man with a net worth of around $US200 billion, was in the middle of a house-buying spree last year when he made the bid.

The Amazon boss, pictured, had already bought the house next door to Mr Kryss’s mansion, on the private island of Indian Creek, for around $100 million.

“It was highly material to his negotiations and his decision on the ultimate sales price to know whether Mr Bezos was attempting to anonymously acquire the home in order to assemble it with the adjoining property,” the lawsuit claims.

Mr Kryss said he suspected that the offer on his property came from Mr Bezos but claimed Douglas Elliman’s chief executive Jay Parker flatly denied it when asked. Mr Kryss had bought the seven-bedroom home for $41 million in 2014.

It was only after Mr Kryss agreed to the reduced offer that he found out Bezos was the owner of the company that made the bid.

Douglas Elliman, who acted for the buyer and the seller, received a 4 per cent commission, equal to about $4.5 million.

A spokesman for the firm said it would not comment.

But Mr Kryss’s lawyer Dana Clayton said 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,” she added.