'Mamdani put me in harm's way': Citadel CEO says shifting investment to Miami after NYC mayor's tax video

Billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin said Citadel is expanding its investment and office footprint in Miami after Zohran Mamdani posted a viral tax video outside his Manhattan penthouse, escalating tensions between Wall Street billionaires and New York’s new progressive leadership.

Speaking at the Milken Institute Global Conference on Tuesday, Griffin said the mayor’s video targeting wealthy property owners had directly influenced Citadel’s decision to grow more aggressively in Miami rather than New York.

Griffin accused Mamdani of endangering him personally by filming the video outside his residence at 220 Central Park South.

“Mamdani put me in harm’s way,” Griffin said during an interview with CNBC, describing the video as “creepy and weird” and “in poor taste”.

“In reaction to New York, we filed a permit with the city of Miami,” Griffin said. “We will add far more jobs in Miami over the next decade as an immediate and direct consequence of the mayor’s poor decision.”

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The Citadel chief referenced the 2024 killing of Brian Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel near Griffin’s penthouse, saying he was alarmed by being publicly singled out by the mayor.

“I have no longstanding fights or issues or dynamics with the mayor,” Griffin said. “Yet he turned me into a political puppet.”

The dispute centres on Mamdani’s proposed pied-a-terre tax, unveiled in a video released on April 15 under the slogan: “Happy Tax Day, New York. We’re taxing the rich.”

The measure would impose an annual levy on luxury homes worth more than $5 million if their owners do not use them as primary residences. Mamdani said the policy was aimed at wealthy investors who store capital in high-end New York real estate while leaving properties vacant for most of the year.

The mayor filmed the announcement outside Griffin’s apartment tower, where the billionaire bought a penthouse for roughly $238 million in 2019 — then the most expensive home ever sold in the United States.

“This is a fundamentally unfair system that hurts working New Yorkers,” Mamdani said in the video. “Now it’s coming to an end.”

According to the mayor’s office, the proposed tax could raise at least $500 million annually for the city.

Griffin rejected the proposal, saying it unfairly targeted a narrow group of wealthy residents and risked damaging New York’s economic competitiveness.

Citadel has increasingly shifted operations toward Miami since Griffin relocated there from Chicago during the pandemic. The hedge fund giant is developing a large new headquarters in the city, as South Florida continues to market itself as a lower-tax alternative to traditional financial centres such as New York.

With inputs from agencies.