OpenAI CEO Sam Altman seeks dismissal of sister’s punitive damages claims in sexual abuse lawsuit
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Mr Sam Altman said his sister began accusing him of sexual abuse, starting when she was three and he was 12, after the family rejected her demand for more financial support.
PHOTO: REUTERS
New York - OpenAI co-founder and chief executive Sam Altman is seeking the dismissal of punitive damages claims in his sister’s civil lawsuit accusing him of repeated sexual abuse more than two decades ago, an accusation he denies.
In a filing on April 15, Mr Altman said Missouri’s child sexual abuse statute does not authorise punitive damages for Ms Annie Altman’s claims, and instead limits her to “damages for injury or illness” caused by childhood sexual abuse.
Mr Altman said punitive damages are also unavailable for conduct he allegedly committed as a child. He renewed his request to dismiss Ms Altman’s lawsuit altogether.
Lawyers for Ms Altman did not immediately respond to requests for comment after business hours.
Ms Altman accused her brother of sexually abusing and raping her between 1997 and 2006 at the family home in suburban Clayton, Missouri, starting when she was three and he was 12. She said the “last acts of sexual abuse and rape” occurred when her brother was an adult. He is now 40.
The Altman family has said Ms Altman has mental health challenges and received financial support. Mr Altman said she began accusing him on social media of sexual abuse after they rejected her extortionate demand for “greater and greater financial support”.
Her lawsuit began in January 2025.
Mr Altman is countersuing his sister for defamation over her posts, including a video that said “an almost tech billionaire” molested her.
He is seeking US$1 (S$1.27), saying he “does not want to harm his sister financially” but wants a verdict that her statements are not true.
Mr Altman became the face of the artificial intelligence boom after chatbot ChatGPT was released in 2022.
He also faces a scheduled April 27 trial in fellow billionaire Elon Musk’s more than US$134 billion lawsuit accusing OpenAI of departing from its mission to develop AI to benefit humanity, and defrauding him into donating. OpenAI partner Microsoft is also a defendant. REUTERS
