Mike Lindell's $5 million contest winner takes him to federal court

A Nevada computer scientist has gone to federal court to pursue the $5 million prize he is owed by MyPillow chief executive Mike Lindell following a ruling by private arbitrators last month.

The arbitrators found that Robert Zeidman deserved the money because he had successfully challenged data related to Lindell's false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen — and had thus won a contest Lindell had dubbed: "Prove Mike Wrong."

In their April 19 decision, they gave Lindell's firm, Lindell Management, 30 days to pay.

Since then, Lindell has not turned over any money, and on Thursday he asked a state court in Minnesota to vacate the award on the grounds that the arbitration panel had "exceeded its powers."

Zeidman's attorneys on Friday filed a petition in federal district court in Minnesota to force Lindell to pay the prize, plus interest of 10 percent a year.

They are asking a judge to confirm the legitimacy of the arbitrators' award and to enter a $5 million judgment against Lindell's firm. Such a judgment would empower Zeidman with stronger legal tools he could use to collect his winnings.

"There are no circumstances under which I'm letting him run away with that money," said Brian Glasser, one of Zeidman's attorneys.

Lindell said he would continue to fight to quash the arbitration award.

"It's not about payment, it's wrong. They're just doing this trying to discredit the evidence and the evidence is all there," he said in an interview Friday. "We're taking it to court. It's just all corrupt."

Under federal and state law, a decision to vacate the award would require finding that the arbitrators had committed misconduct, exceeded their powers or that the process was otherwise corrupt.

The controversy grew out of an offer Lindell made ahead of a "cyber symposium" he held in August 2021 in South Dakota. In public and broadcast appearances, he claimed that he had data showing that the Chinese government had interfered with the 2020 U.S. presidential election, and he said he would pay a $5 million prize to any cyber expert who could prove that the material was not from that election.

Zeidman examined Lindell's data and concluded that it did not substantiate Lindell's claims of fraud and in fact had no connection to the 2020 election. In their decision, the arbitrators said Zeidman proved that Lindell's material "unequivocally did not reflect November 2020 election data."

Lindell has been one of the most stalwart and vocal proponents of former president Donald Trump's false claims that voting machines were manipulated to steal the 2020 election.

Lindell faces a $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems - the company that recently secured a historic settlement in a defamation case against Fox News - and another defamation lawsuit from a former Dominion executive.

Lindell has denied wrongdoing in both cases.