OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s $27 million luxury mansion in the Russian Hill neighborhood of San Francisco has a pipe that’s dumping sewage on the side of the house. That’s according to a lawsuit filed on July 12, 2024, and uncovered by The San Francisco Standard.
The lawsuit alleges that seller Troon Pacific and its CEO Greg Malin sold the mansion at 950 Lombard St. while knowing it had a bunch of problems. “In or about March of 2020, OWNER—without any prior knowledge of the rancor, poor supervision, shoddy workmanship, corner-cutting, and financial embezzlement that had characterized the development and construction of the Property—entered into negotiations to purchase what it believed to be a beautiful, luxury home in San Francisco,” the lawsuit says.
As detailed by The San Francisco Standard, the owner in the lawsuit is probably Altman. The plaintiff in the lawsuit is listed as 950 Lombard LLC. Altman is the current resident at that address, which is also the registered business address of an investment firm owned by Altman and his brother.
The house on Lombard was, at one time, the most expensive house in San Francisco. It was so luxurious it earned itself a walkthrough video from Architectural Digest in 2020. The video showed off the home’s incredible infinity pool, stunning views of the city, and a garage it likened to the “Batcave.”
But the 9,500 square foot estate apparently wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. “DEVELOPER failed to timely pay subcontractors who retaliated against the Property through a campaign of sabotage, which included filling drainage and sewer pipes with contractors bags and debris,” the lawsuit says. “It appears [the developer] saw the looming threat of investor lawsuits on the horizon and rushed the projects to cover its mounting losses.”
According to the lawsuit, the infinity pool leaks into the lower level of the house. Figuring that out, allegedly, involved a lengthy investigation and a lab test for chlorine. There’s water all over the property, including “an unconnected bathroom sewer line that dumped raw sewage on the ground in a hard to access area at the side of the residence.”
The current repair estimates are around $4 million and Lombard LLC is seeking unspecified damages and attorney’s fees in its lawsuit. Troon and Malin are probably on the hook for this. It has a history of shoddy work and losing massive lawsuits. In May, they paid out $48.1 million to investors after a similar fiasco.
