Brokers for a luxe real estate firm say they were bilked out of $185,000 because a top Treasury Department official bullied the company into withholding the cash.
Madeline McKenna and Jeffrey Levitas claim in their Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit that the firm, Brown Harris Stevens, withheld their commission for the $7.4?million Central Park West condo they sold to Antonio Weiss, counselor to the secretary of the US Treasury.
The brokers say in the suit that Weiss won a fierce bidding war for his dream pad but then threw a tantrum over the eventual sale price.
He then threatened Brown Harris Stevens into keeping the brokers’ portion of the payment, they say.
“It’s my opinion that [Weiss] was totally pissed off that he did not get the apartment for what he wanted to pay for it,” McKenna told The Post. “We believe that once he got the apartment for 7.4 .?.?. his ego wanted money back.”
Weiss bullied the company’s president, Hall Willkie, the brokers alleged.
“[Weiss] is an extremely powerful man!” McKenna said. “It was really Hall’s way of saying, ‘I don’t want to be bothered. I’m going to throw these two under the bus.’”
Willkie is described as a hard-nosed leader in Manhattan’s luxury real estate market.
The brokers said they are tired of being caught in the middle of a battle between millionaires.
“He’s a thief and a bully,” McKenna said of Willkie.
Willkie, Weiss and the law firm for Brown Harris Stevens did not return requests for comment.