Yacht broker sues developer for US$725,000 commission

A pair of lawsuits that span the Eastern seaboard of the United States are pitting a New York real estate developer against his long-time yacht broker who claims he was cheated out of a US$725,000 sales commission.

The latter suit, filed in Broward County, Florida by Scott Goldsworthy, counters an earlier filing in New York Supreme Court by developer Miki Naftali asking for a declaratory judgement saying Goldsworthy is not entitled to any commission from a yacht purchase he made from Italian manufacturer Baglietto.

Goldsworthy, who has bought and sold yachts for Naftali over six years, according to the lawsuit and reporting in The Real Deal, claims he worked for over a year on the Baglietto purchase on the promise of a 5% commission on the deal, agreed to by all parties.

At some point, Naftali and the yacht builder reached their own deal and “engaged in this illicit scheme so that Naftali could save money on the price of the new build, and so that Baglietto could close the deal with a customer based in the United States,” Goldsworthy’s suit reads. “Baglietto wanted to infiltrate the custom yacht market in the United States and believed this transaction would help to solidify that goal.”

Goldsworthy claims Naftali promised to pay his commission directly, but reneged on the offer.

Joshua Alper, Goldsworthy’s attorney, told The Real Deal the yacht cost about $14m overall, and Goldsworthy had done a significant amount of work on what was a very complicated deal.

“This was truly a two-year period where my client was involved in the specific details of this yacht,” he said, “and at the last minute, he was denied his entitlement to his commission on work that he did for over two years.”