UES Elliman broker rejects Libyan leader

Moammar Khadafy, the Libyan leader who had briefly considered renting Joan Rivers’ Upper East Side home, was denied service by Jason Haber, an agent with Prudential Douglas Elliman. After Khadafy’s representatives approached Haber, hoping to rent an Upper East Side home, the broker told them to buzz off. “They kept asking, ‘What would be the price? What would be the price?’” Haber said. “I thought about it and said, ‘Why don’t you send Megrahi back to Scotland, and then maybe we can work something out.’ They hung up on me immediately.” Abdelbaset al Megrahi, the convicted Lockerbie bomber, was welcomed back to Libyan territory last month after being released from a Scottish prison. The space in question is 3,700 square feet at 5 East 78th Street. While just one of the three units there was available, Haber said that Khadafy’s people were interested in renting the whole building. Khadafy, who was looking to rent just through the end of the United Nations general assembly, was also reportedly asked to leave the Pierre hotel.