A 90-year-old woman who won $590 million in a Powerball jackpot is suing her son for allegedly squandering her money and making bad investments, making her leave her million-dollar home in Jacksonville.
Gloria MacKenzie won one of the largest lottery jackpots in US history, having accepted her $590 million win from the Powerball jackpot back in May 2013. It was the second largest jackpot in US history at the time.
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After opting to take the lump sum which amounted to a total of $370.9 million, she split the money with her son, Scott MacKenzie.
Before winning the lottery, Gloria was living on her own at a rental duplex in Tampa, Florida. When she won the lottery, her son bought a 6,300 sq ft 5-bedroom home for nearly $1.2 million in the exclusive Glen Kernan Country Club in Jacksonville with her portion of the money.
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Scott moved in to the house at Glen Kernan Country Club with his mother. Then, he hired an investment manager, Hank Madden, to manage both their funds.
But just a few years later, Gloria was no longer living at her million-dollar home. Instead, her address is listed in Pennsylvania while her son continues to use the same address as the one at the gated community.
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Gloria’s other children grew concerned when she started searching for relatives to take care of her, especially considering that she could have gotten herself an entire care facility with her money. This led to questions about her winnings as everyone was wondering what happened with her money.
Finally, Gloria filed a case against her son at Duval County Circuit Court, alleging that he spent her money on bad investments. Scott has allegedly lost at least $10 million of Gloria’s money in ‘bad investments’.
In the 50-page complaint, Gloria said that Madden had been charging millions in fees to manage the account, yet the investments had not grown at all. He even tried to isolate her so she wouldn’t continue questioning how he was handling her money.
The lawsuit also claimed that Madden “failed to invest the funds in an appropriate mix of investments, did very little trading and mostly invested in debt instruments, most of which, once purchased, sat in the accounts and the value of which was used to compute fees for Madden, all of which was known to Scott who did nothing to correct the situation.”
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Greg Anderson, Gloria’s lawyer, said that her son was supposed to take care of her as part of their agreement when they split the money, but he ended up kicking her out of her million-dollar home and squandering her money.
“The other children and grandchildren started asking questions because here is Gloria who had enough money to buy every assistant living center in Jacksonville if she wanted to, and yet she was looking for a relative to live with to take care of her,” Anderson said.
Meanwhile, Scott refused to talk to the media but his lawyer prepared a statement on his behalf:
“Mr. MacKenzie is deeply disappointed with his family members’ decisions and their motivations in bringing this lawsuit, but is equally confident that the truth will ultimately prevail. Although he strongly disagrees with the allegations that have been made, he will respect his family’s privacy by reserving any further comments until the case has been concluded.”
A classic case of “More money, more problems”? This seems to be the case… Maybe, a Family Counseling can solve or fix their family problems.