After flying to Davos in a private jet with his wife, kids and two nannies, billionaire Jeff Greene, who amassed a fortune betting against subprime mortgage securities, is lecturing the rest of us to live more modestly.
“America’s lifestyle expectations are far too high and need to be adjusted so we have less things and a smaller, better existence,” Coral Gables founder Greene told Bloomberg News at the World Economic Forum, adding, “We need to reinvent our whole system of life.”
That’s rich from the man who owns one of the most expensive residential listings in the country, a $195 million, 53,000-square-foot Beverly Hills mansion, Palazzo di Amore, with 23 bathrooms, a bowling alley and a disco with a 10,000-crystal chandelier.
He married Mei Sze Chan there in 2007, with Mike Tyson famously as best man. But they never moved in, and rented the place out because they live in Palm Beach, where they bought a $24 million mansion in 2011.
Greene, whose net worth is $3 billion, also owns a $12.5 million Malibu mansion, plus a 55-acre estate near Sag Harbor said to boast three docks and five separate houses purchased in 2011 for $36 million.
And while we’re on the subject of “less things,” there’s also Greene’s mega-yacht, Summerwind.