MILLIONS of people dream of winning the lottery and wiping all their worries away – but sometimes, it’s where the trouble truly starts.
Gloria Mackenzie, 90, dubbed the “world’s oldest” lotto winner, became embroiled in a vicious legal row with her own son after claiming he squandered her £228million jackpot.
Gloria Mackenzie scooped the huge win in 2013 and split it with her son Scott[/caption]
Gloria was living in a squalid duplex in Zephyrhills, Florida, when she scooped the eyewatering sum in May 2013.
It seemed the stars had aligned for her when she purchased the lucky Powerball ticket after a kind stranger let her cut in line.
The then-84-year-old split her whopping windfall with her son, Scott Mackenzie, 60, who claimed he’d given her half the money to take the gamble.
He was also granted power of attorney over Gloria’s finances as she struggled to manage her newfound cash flow.
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The former shoe store assistant manager had vowed to take care of his aging mother for the rest of her life.
But he allegedly later shifted the multi-million-pound burden onto a financial advisor instead, according to an explosive lawsuit.
Scott had idolised investment advisor Harry “Hank” Madden, who spouted words of fiscal ‘wisdom’ on a local radio show.
And the 60-year-old’s faith is said to have ended up costing him – and his mother – dearly, after an alleged string of poor investments.
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In a lawsuit filed against Scott and his financial consultants in 2019, Gloria alleged she lost out on “tens of millions of dollars” in expected returns due to Madden’s strategy.
The financial advisor was also allegedly charging the family exorbitant fees in excess of £1.6million for his questionable monetary advice.
Gloria’s attorney Gregory Anderson said he had demanded: “‘outrageous amounts and fees totally untied to any actual performance.”
He added: “Your stockbroker friend down the street may have some good advice, but how fiscally responsible are they if they’re wrong?”
The lotto winner’s complaint claimed Madden had never taken charge of such a huge sum of money and that previous clients had complained about his methods.
She believed he had invested the cash too conservatively, resulting in minute returns on her investments.
FAMILY FUED
In the suit, the mum accused Scott of “failing to perform the proper due diligence to investigate and understand the person being considered to handle her nine-figure portfolio.”
But the redfaced son insisted there was no basis for a lawsuit just because her investments didn’t grow as she presumed.
His legal team argued that he had in fact “effectively preserved her wealth” by investing small amounts – claiming that’s what Gloria had asked him to do.
The outcome of the legal battle, and what remains of the lotto winner’s £228million fortune, remains unclear.
Gloria passed away in February 2021, after splashing out £1million on a five-bedroom mansion in the Glen Kernan Country Club.
According to her lawyer, the deed to the home was transferred to her daughter and trustee Melinda MacKenzie – before it bizarrely became listed under her son’s name.
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Anderson said Scott “banished” his mother from the property, seeing her move in with another one of her children in Jacksonville.
The world’s oldest lotto winner also created the Gloria C. Mackenzie Foundation, to help people in her hometown of Maine.
She accused Scott of squandering their fortune after hiring a dodgy financial advisor[/caption]
