Warren Buffett Is NOT Buying a Greek Island With the Guy from '50 Shades'

Warren Buffett is not--we repeat, NOT--buying a Greek island with the man who claims to be the real-life inspiration for "50 Shades of Grey."

Reports in a variety of media outlets--most of them in Europe--are saying that a company called Proto Enterprises joined with the billionaire investor to purchase an island off the coast of Athens for 15 million euros.

But Mr. Buffett told MoneyBeat in an email that those claims are "a total fabrication."

To be clear, MoneyBeat didn't buy this story for a second. And that was before we tried to track down a comment from Proto Enterprises and its leader, Alessandro Proto.

Mr. Proto's prior press coverage--in English, anyway--appears to consist largely of breathless articles that say he claims to be the real-life inspiration for Christian Grey, the lead character in the hit novel "50 Shades of Grey."

An email sent through the website of Proto Enterprises Tuesday resulted in a swift reply.

"Mr. Proto never said that Warren Buffet [sic] has bought an island in Greece. He said there was interest in offering an island to Mr. Buffett...[I]f the media report the news in a different way, is not our Responsibility," said the email, which was signed by a woman named Federica Sala.

The note said that Mr. Proto was hoping to capitalize on the coverage to "get directly to Mr. Buffett." And then it concluded with a rephrasing of a bon mot Mr. Buffett often uses--"you only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out."

"It's only when the tide goes down you see who is dressed," wrote Ms. Sala. "And in this particular case Mr. Proto is dressed and will sell an island in Greece to Mr. Buffet."

But Mr. Buffett didn't sound like he was ready to do a deal with Mr. Proto.

"Until the reports started coming out I had never heard of the guy who is making the claims about the Greek Island," Mr. Buffett said in an email. "It is a total fabrication."

The Omaha World-Herald, owned by Mr. Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc., appears to be the first to report that Mr. Buffett was denying the story.

A follow-up email to Ms. Sala asking if Mr. Proto still claimed to be the real-life Christian Grey wasn't immediately returned. Nor was an email to Vintage Books, publisher of the 50 Shades series, as we attempted to chase down a response to that claim.