The Most Relatable Lottery Winner of All Time is Getting Sued by His Family for Not Sharing His $1.35 BILLION Mega Millions Jackpot
Tim Boyle. Getty Images.It all began well enough. In fact, at the very beginning, it was a great story of hope and inspiration. One in which a man defied all the odds of mathematics was smiled on by providence, and became filthy stinking rich beyond the dreams of any one in Lebanon, Maine:
It was one of those tales of great fortune in the face of nearly impossible odds that we can all feel good about, even as we wish it happened to us. Just a pure good all the way. That is, until it wasn't:
This still anonymous gentleman with the platinum horseshoe up his ass sued the mother of his daughter for breaking her non-disclosure agreement and yapping to her parents about his winnings. But now we find out that was only the beginning of the end for this family:
Source - A Maine man who won one of the biggest lottery jackpots in American history has been accused of stiffing his family for their promised share of the loot, including backpedaling on setting up a million-dollar trust fund and covering medical expenses for his father. …
The unidentified man — who bought the winning ticket in Lebanon, Maine, on Jan. 13 last year before striking it rich with the $1.35 billion Mega Millions jackpot — has been in a legal battle with his daughter’s mom since November. …
[T]he mom — identified by a pseudonym, Sara Smith — claims he was the one who spilled the beans about the historic win to his family, not her.
The lucky man’s father buttressed Smith’s claims, saying his son told them about his victory before rattling off all the things he planned to do with the spoils, which the outlet said he collected through an LLC in a lump sum north of $500 million. …
The father claims he didn’t ask for any money.
But that didn’t stop the newly minted half-billionaire from allegedly making a litany of unsolicited high-dollar promises, including building his dad a garage to fix up old cars, buying his childhood home, setting up a million-dollar trust fund and funding future medical expenses for his dad and stepmom. …
“I told him … ‘You are not the son I knew,’” his dad wrote in the filing.
I've got news for you, Pops. He is most definitely not the son you knew. That son was broke. He was putting his meager earnings into lottery tickets at the Gas 'n Sip, in a pathetic, statistically impossible attempt to transform himself from the dull, ordinary, unmemorable worker drone he was into the man he now is: One with obscene wealth. And unlike certain men who built a multimedia empire out of nothing, your son's half billion dollars wasn't hard earned. But that doesn't mean he owes anything to anyone. I mean, yes, he owes his daughter whatever the court rules her share of his fortune should be. But the rest of you leeches are shit out of luck.
Oh, he promised you he'd take care of you, Sara Smith and mom and dad? Did you get that in writing? If so, show us the documents with his signature. Preferably notarized. Otherwise, bugger off. Anybody can claim he promised them anything. I could come forward and say I bumped into him on my way to Portland and I stopped at the Maine Diner for a coffee and he and I chatted and he promised he'd buy me a luxury box at Gillette and a working replica of the original Batmobile if he ever struck it rich. It doesn't mean jack squat if it's not in black and white, plain as day, clear as crystal.
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You might try to argue he has a moral obligation to help the people who raised him and birthed his daughter. But "moral" is like an unwritten rule in sports. The reason it's unwritten is because it's too stupid to put down on paper. Besides, where was their moral obligation to help him with the cost of all those Mega Millions tickets he paid for that didn't win? I don't remember him dragging these deadbeats to court to make them pay up for all the money he pissed away. Lotteries are, after all, a tax on stupidity. And none of them tried to stop him. They just put their hands out the minute he attained generational wealth. And don't other trying some emotional appeal claptrap. Sure they loved him. But $500 million will buy you more love than any one Lebanon Mainiac could ever need.
If anything, it's refreshing to hear someone strike it insanely rich and just level with us. Every lottery winner loves to stand before the microphones and prattle on about all the good works they're going to do with their winnings. It's about time one of them be honest and just admit they're giving it all away to everyone's favorite charity: Themselves.
Oh, and best of luck dragging this guy to court. He's able to afford an army of attorneys who will protect his massive, unearned fortune at all costs. At best, you might be able to luck out with some personal injury guy off a billboard willing to work Pro Bono in hopes of collecting 1/3 of a settlement. But he'll be able to drag this thing out forever until your lawyer can't afford to work for free anymore and drops you like you're hot.
Maybe these people will get lucky and someone who actually cares about them will win a half billion and be too much of a sucker to say "No" to their handouts. Until then, all their luck went to the wrong guy