The winner of a Mega Millions lottery jackpot worth over $1 billion has been accused in a lawsuit of lying about sharing his winnings with his family.
The lucky gambler, known only as John Doe in court papers, won $1.35bn and collected the lump sum payment of roughly $500m after taxes.
He then sued the mother of his daughter, named Sara Smith in court papers, after she broke a non-disclosure agreement by telling his family of his win.
Now, a new batch of court documents first reported on by The Daily Beast have complicated things further.
The winner’s father, a former police chief now in his 70s, wrote in a sworn declaration that his son misled him after telling him of his lottery win.
The lucky gambler won $1.35bn and collected the lump sum payment of roughly $500m after taxes after purchasing the ticket from Hometown Gas & Grill, seen here, in Lebanon Maine
In the latest court filings, Smith says Doe himself told his father and stepmom about his lottery win, which her lawyers claim ‘shatters the remaining shards of this suit’
On May 10, attorneys for Doe filed a motion for sanctions against Smith arguing that she had tried to publicly expose his identity.
Lawyers also claimed she made false claims about his conduct following the win, including an attempt to allegedly ‘kidnap’ their daughter which he insists is untrue.
Smith hit back with a sworn affidavit from Doe’s father, during which his father scolded his son for not keeping his word in the aftermath of his lottery win.
Doe said in the papers: ‘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. 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.’
His father said that his son had misled him about a number of things since the large win.
His declaration says: ‘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.
‘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.
‘He told me he was going to build me a garage, and buy me some cars to fix up. 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 father claims his son told him he would set up a $1 million trust fund for him and that would enable him to have a monthly income.
On top of that, his father claims he said he would provide his parents with 24 hour care should they ever need it to avoid them going into a nursing home.
The father said that his son had insisted that neither him or his stepmom have any communication with Smith.
He continues: ‘Smith is the mother of our grandchild and we have had a good relationship with her over the years.
‘I thought she was a good mother and we did not want to turn our back on her as he insisted.’
After the father told his son he didn’t recognize the person he had become, he said his son ‘got angry, calling me a dictator, and an a**hole’, adding: ”I have not heard from my son since, and he has not done any of [the] things he promised.’
Meanwhile Smith has claimed in the papers that Doe has a security team that have been following her and monitoring her electronic devices.
She said: ‘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.’
Smith also claims that Doe ‘kidnapped’ their daughter and took her out of state for weeks, but he claims that he has joint custody of their daughter.
Doe also claimed that Smith agreed he could take the girl on vacation, and claimed he had kidnapped her after he refused to pay for her and her boyfriend to go on a ‘dream vacation’ to Disney World.
The lawyers for Smith say he originally filed the suit ‘because he didn’t want his own family to know that he won the lottery and was motivated to punish her after she rejected him’.
Her attorney’s claim he is using his new wealth to ‘try to overwhelm’ Smith with expensive litigation to ‘extort concessions’.
Doe beat the odds of 1 in 302.6 million to win the $1.35 billion jackpot – the second largest Mega Millions win ever, and the fourth-largest in U.S. history.
Mega Millions is played in 45 states as well as Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
src: dailymail.co.uk