Woman says Maine's Mega Millions winner is using lawsuit to pressure her in custody case

The ex-girlfriend of the anonymous $1.35 billion Maine lottery winner is accusing him of filing a lawsuit against her not to protect his identity but to pressure her to give him sole custody of their infant daughter transferred to.

Nearly a year after winning the Mega Millions, the man filed a lawsuit against the unnamed woman, claiming she violated a nondisclosure agreement not to tell anyone he was Maine's mysterious multimillionaire. He has asked the court to order her to pay $100,000 in damages.

The man sued her in U.S. District Court in Portland last fall, claiming she told his father about the winning ticket after he signed the agreement to protect his identity and information about how much he won and how much he won gives to your child. The lawsuit confirmed that he lives in Maine, but does not specify where and neither party is identified by their real names.

But in new court papers this week, the woman said he was actually the one who told his father about the money. His father confirmed this in a signed statement filed with the court.

The lottery winner collected his winnings, about $723.5 million after taxes, through an LLC registered in Delaware. Under Maine law, that was enough to claim the prize without publicly identifying oneself.

Daniel Nuzzi, a lawyer for the woman, said in court papers that the lawsuit was based on false allegations and was brought with “an improper purpose, namely to coerce, intimidate and pressure her in an ongoing custody and child support matter.”

The man's attorney, Greg Brown, said in an email Thursday that the defendant's claims were “meritless.”

The woman, who lives in Dracut, Massachusetts, filed a motion Wednesday asking the court to impose sanctions against her ex for filing an inaccurate complaint. That motion is sealed, but several exhibits, including an affidavit from her and her attorney, were publicly available Thursday morning. (The exhibits were later sealed after the Portland Press Herald reached out to Brown for comment.)

The woman said the lawsuit was the latest in a series of cases in which her ex-partner used his newly acquired wealth to pressure her into giving him sole custody.

The two have known each other for 17 years and were in a long-term relationship until 2020, she said. They share a 9-year-old daughter and their parenting relationship was amicable before 2023, according to their report.

“That changed after he won the lottery,” she wrote.

The woman said she signed the nondisclosure agreement last February and was unaware that anyone else had been asked to sign it.

“I am satisfied that plaintiff also disclosed the fact and amount of his lottery winnings to a number of other persons and gave them permission to disclose it to others without seeking or obtaining a nondisclosure agreement,” she wrote.

RISK OF ABDUCTION INCREASED

She said that after meeting with him and his financial advisor last year, he sent her a message that his “security team” could take her daughter away from her at any time. He later told her that his “security team” believed her daughter was at risk of being kidnapped and convinced her that he needed to take the girl away for four to six weeks for her safety, but promised her that she would stay the whole time According to court documents, the woman was able to track her whereabouts by wearing a GPS watch.

About a week later, he turned off the GPS watch and sent it back to her, she said. Then the girl's school told her she had received a letter from his attorney saying her daughter would not be returning to school this year, court records say.

“This was extremely distressing and left me concerned for my daughter and her safety and well-being,” she wrote. He “did not want to tell me their plans or whereabouts during this time, and I became afraid that (he) had kidnapped our child.”

When she contacted her lawyers, she said the father tried to offer her money in exchange for custody.

“I could not and would not agree to such an agreement to take money for my child,” she said.

The girl was returned to her mother in mid-March after she filed an emergency petition with the state court. Their custody case remains pending, but it is unclear in which state they are litigating.

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