Wife sues husband for share of secret lottery winnings

A woman whose husband has kept about $600,000 in lottery winnings from her says she has a number for him: half. And Donna Campbell is suing her husband in her attempt to get it.

But American Airlines mechanic Arnim Ramdass disappeared after his wife confronted him about the secret, so process servers haven't been able to hand him the lawsuit papers yet, Campbell's attorney said.

"Here's a guy who for years has spent marital money on the lottery and at casinos, and he's always lost," Bruce Baldwin said. "And now he finally wins, and he's trying to keep it from his wife. That's pretty low."

Campbell, Ramdass' wife since 2005 and girlfriend for five years before that, said she suspected he was hiding something when he disconnected their phone and kept their television off.

A postcard offering congratulations on a new house purchase was her final clue.

"He lied to me so many times in that one week that I tried to resolve this at home," Campbell said. "He told me that the money will all come back to us, that he couldn't get it together right now."

So Campbell did an Internet search on "Ramdass" and "lotto" and saw a news release from the Florida Lottery about a pool of 17 airline mechanics who won the $19 million jackpot on June 20.

"I was shocked," she said. "I went on the Internet looking for the purchase of probably a new home, because I saw something came in the mail that he had purchased, a 'Congratulations on your new home.' And I saw the Ramdass name listed on the Florida Lottery site."

Campbell said Ramdass completely denied winning the lottery.

"I said, 'Do you have any news you want to share with me,"' Campbell recalled telling her husband. "He said, 'No. What are you talking about?' I said, 'The lottery."'

Ramdass told her he had bought the ticket for his daughter from another marriage, but Campbell didn't believe it.

"He had been buying those tickets for years, and he never, ever said one of them was for her," Campbell said.

Ramdass and his co-workers have for years pooled their money every Wednesday and Friday for Lotto tickets, Campbell said.

The group opted for the lump-sum payment of $10.2 million, so each got about $600,000 before taxes.

"It's fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud," Campbell's lawyer said.

An American Airlines official declined to comment on Ramdass' job status, citing employee privacy, but his co-workers said he has taken a leave of absence.

"Yes, I still love him," she said. "There are still feelings there, but I think that I need to do what's right, and I did tell him that. I'm not going to let him walk away with what he has done to me."

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