After 25 years of marriage, Denise Rossie filed for divorce from her husband Thomas.
On December 28, 1996, she filed for divorce. However, 11 days prior, she won $1.3 million (about R24 million) in the California lottery.
She split the full amount of $6.6m with her co-workers — who she bought the ticket with.
A calculated move on her part by not disclosing her jackpot winnings to her husband, and then filing for divorce.
And Denise almost got away with it, that is until Thomas received a letter in the mail two years after they split.
According to the New Zealand Herald, the letter was from a company that pays out lump sums when someone wins the lottery.
The letter, meant for Denise, explained that the company “helped hundreds of lottery winners like you around the country receive a lump sum payment for the present value of their future annual lottery payments”.
While describing his reaction, Thomas’s lawyer Mark Lerner told the publication, “I think he scratched his head for a while, saying: ‘What? This can’t be.’”
As you can imagine, things didn’t end well for Denise.
Thomas ended up taking her to court where a judge ruled that she "had violated laws pertaining to the disclosure of assets and funds and acted in fraud or malice”.
The court also heard how Denise had the cheque sent to her mom’s house instead of her marital home.
On Denise’s plan to divorce, Thomas told PEOPLE, “She wanted me to move out of the house very fast. It wasn’t like her to act this way.”
At the end of court proceedings, she was ordered to pay Thomas 20 annual instalments of $66,800, totally up to the entire amount of her win.
IOL