Celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson has been accused in a lawsuit of cheating a real estate broker out of his commission on the purchase of a $3 million Harlem townhouse.
Samuelsson bought the four-bedroom, four-bathroom townhouse at 30 West 120th Street in January, as The Real Deal reported. But the chef — who owns Harlem’s Red Rooster and counts President Barack Obama and supermodel Cindy Crawford as admirers — didn’t whip up even a single dollar in commission for his broker, Laurent Delly, according to the suit Delly filed in Manhattan civil court which was seen by the New York Post.
Delly claims in the suit that the seller’s broker received a 6 percent commission, and he is suing Samuelsson for his $75,000 cut.
Samuelsson’s attorney Fred Daniels told the newspaper that “the claim against Marcus Samuelsson has no legal basis and lacks any true validity.” [NYP] – Hiten Samtani