A New York City real estate attorney has filed a lawsuit against celebrity broker Ryan Serhant, alleging she was not paid her full referral commission in the sale of a Fisher Island home involving billionaire Yuri Shefler.
Natalia Sishodia, who leads her own firm in New York, is seeking $455,000 and a jury trial. Court documents show that Sishodia signed a referral agreement with Serhant in April 2024. The complaint claims Serhant owed her 25 percent of an $840,000 gross commission, totaling $210,000. According to Sishodia, she received only $105,000 after Serhant cited an amended agreement. The lawsuit was filed in July in the Supreme Court of the State of New York in New York County and names Serhant and seven of his companies as defendants.
The total amount Sishodia is demanding includes the additional $105,000 she says she is owed and $350,000 in damages.
Attorneys for Sishodia declined to comment on the case. Andrew Lieb, Serhant’s attorney, stated via email that the broker is seeking to dismiss the case and “will let the papers speak for themselves.”
The dispute centers on Shefler’s $21 million sale of his property at 6915 Valencia Drive on Fisher Island in Miami Beach last December. The buyer was Guilherme Federico. Mariana Niro from Serhant’s firm represented both sides in the transaction for the 9,400-square-foot mansion—one of only a few single-family homes on Fisher Island.
Legal filings revealed Shefler’s connection to the property for the first time. Shefler is known as head of SPI Group and its Luxembourg-based subsidiary Stoli Group—the maker of Stoli Vodka—and other liquor brands. Forbes lists his net worth at $1.1 billion (https://www.forbes.com/profile/yuri-shefler/).
In previous years, Shefler made headlines by selling his superyacht “Serene” to Prince Mohammed bin Salman for $550 million (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/world/europe/yacht-saudi-prince.html) and purchasing Angelina Jolie’s share of Château Miraval vineyard for $28.4 million (https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/drinks/a40471384/brad-pitt-angelina-jolie-chateau-miraval-wine-estate-lawsuit-explained/)—a deal that led Brad Pitt to sue Jolie for $67 million over their business dispute.
The Fisher Island sale marked a notable achievement for Serhant since expanding into South Florida in 2023. His entry into this market has included legal challenges; Palm Beach Gardens-based Sutter & Nugent sued Serhant Florida last year over alleged trade secret theft—a suit dismissed this April.
Since then, Serhant has hired top Palm Beach agent Gary Pohrer and opened an office on Palm Beach island. He is also involved with assembling an oceanfront property portfolio valued at more than $350 million connected to Microsoft billionaire Charles Simonyi.
An earlier version of this story misidentified the buyer of the home.
