A family feud of grand proportions is unfolding after a man who won a staggering $1.35 billion lottery jackpot is being sued by his own loved ones for allegedly breaking his promise of sharing the winnings with them.
The modern-day drama began when an unidentified man from Lebanon, Maine, hit the Mega Millions jackpot on January 13, 2023. The winning ticket, bought from Hometown Gas & Grill in Lebanon, Maine, led to the fourth-largest lottery jackpot payout in U.S. history.
Opting for a lump-sum payout, he pocketed about $500 million after taxes and initially penned a story that sounded like everyone’s dreams had come true. However, the reality eventually proved to be far more complicated. The man is now being sued by his family members for not fulfilling promises he apparently made.
“February or March of 2023, my son came to my house in [REDACTED], and informed me and my wife that he won a large amount of money in the Maine State Lottery,” said the winner’s father in a sworn declaration filed earlier this month. “I understand that my son has stated that he told me nothing about his money ‘other than the simple fact that I had won.’ That is not true.”
A lottery champion who won a staggering $1.35 billion jackpot is embroiled in a legal battle with his family members
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In the declaration obtained by the Daily Beast, the retired police chief in his 70s said he didn’t ask his son for anything, but he still “told [him] a number of things he planned on doing with his money.”
“For example, he told me he was going to build me a garage, and buy me some cars to fix up,” the declaration said. “He knew I previously enjoyed working on [and] fixing up old cars. He also told me that he wanted to buy us the house that he had lived in with me and his mother (my previous wife) when he was young. He said, ‘Find out what they want for it, and I’ll pay double,’ or words to that effect. This is not something my current wife and I wanted to do.”
The jackpot winner reportedly cut his father off over an argument they had about his daughters’ mother, identified by a pseudonym, Sara Smith.
The lucky ticket holder's father said in a court document that his son made a slew of promises but did not fulfill them
“I told him… ‘You are not the son I knew,’” the father said. “He got angry, calling me a ‘dictator’ and an ‘asshole.’ I have not heard from my son since, and he has not done any of [the] things he promised.”
Adding another twist to this saga, the lucky ticket holder is suing his daughter’s mother. He alleged that she breached a non-disclosure agreement by spilling the beans about his win before their daughter turned 18 in 2023.
In his own court filings, the half-billionaire said, “I made the mistake of telling my father that I had won the lottery without having him sign a confidentiality agreement.”
“Our relationship deteriorated quickly thereafter,” he continued. “I did not tell him what I was doing with my money, how I was going to benefit my daughter, or any facts other than the simple fact that I had won.”
The lottery winner is also suing the mother of his daughter for allegedly telling people that he won the jackpot
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On the other hand, the mother of the lottery champion's daughter made serious allegations against him, claiming his newly hired “security team” had been tailing her and their daughter in unmarked cars, monitoring her home, and tracking her communications.
“I often hear a clicking noise when I am on calls, including on calls with my attorneys, and I have had a number of unexplained dropped calls,” she said in her own declaration. “This has been happening for months.”
Sara’s lawyers claimed that the grand prize winner may have filed the lawsuit against her “because he didn’t want his own family to know that he won the lottery [and] that he was motivated to punish the mother of his child after she rejected him notwithstanding his billion-dollar lottery winnings.”