Ex-con Investor Will Duker Lists Miami, NYC Penthouses

A former attorney-turned-investor who spent nearly three years in prison for defrauding the government is selling two luxury penthouses in Miami and New York for a combined $138 million.

William Duker is seeking $78 million for his three-story unit in Miami’s Apogee complex at 800 South Pointe Drive, the New York Post reported. The price amounts to $8,667 per square foot of indoor space. The home, which spans floors 22 through 24, includes about 9,000 square feet of indoor living space and 10,600 square feet of wraparound terraces, according to a news release. It has five bedrooms, four bathrooms, three half-baths and a private rooftop pool.

Dora Puig of Luxe Living Realty and Carlo Gambino of Douglas Elliman Florida have the listing.

Duker bought the unit as a concrete shell for $16 million, or $1,778 per square foot of indoor space, in 2008 and spent five years building it out. He first listed the penthouse for $65 million a decade ago.

The investor is also selling his penthouse in New York City’s Tribeca for $59.5 million. The 7,500-square-foot unit in the Sky Lofts at 145 Hudson Street has four bedrooms and four-and-a-half bathrooms with a 4,500-square-foot wraparound terrace, the outlet said. Duker bought the penthouse for $30.5 million in 2009 from developer Stanley Scott.

Jim St. Andre and Trevor Stephens of Compass, and Adam Modlin and Andrew Nierenberg of the Modlin Group co-hold the listing.

“I’m 72, and I’m just beginning to organize this next phase of my life,” Duker told the New York Post’s Gimme Shelter. “The last thing I need now are two apartments of this size.”

Duker’s penthouse portfolio is a far cry from the prison cells he spent 33 months in after pleading guilty in 1997 to four felony counts. While working for FDIC and Resolution Trust Corporation, Duker overcharged the government $1.4 million and was charged with making false statements and claims, mail fraud and obstructing a federal audit. In addition to his prison sentence, Duker was disbarred and fined $7,500. He paid $2.58 million covering criminal restitution and civil damages, The Real Deal previously reported.

The judge in the case was Sonia Sotomayor, who is now a Supreme Court Justice. She said at the time that the case was difficult to reconcile because Duker helped the government recover millions of dollars even as he defrauded it, the Post reported.

As a lawyer, Duker helped recover money stolen during the savings and loans crisis of the 1980s and ’90s, which cost taxpayers $125 billion.

After his stint behind bars, Duker co-founded the electronic discovery company Amici, which Xerox acquired for $174 million in 2006.

He owns properties in Upstate New York, Manhattan, Miami, Palm Beach and Italy. He also has a 270-foot superyacht, Sybaris.

—Grace McClung