Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, is asking a federal court in St. Louis to remove punitive damages from a civil lawsuit filed by his sister, Annie Altman. He denies all allegations in the case.
Annie Altman filed the lawsuit in January 2025. She accuses her brother of repeated sexual abuse between 1997 and 2006 at the family home in Clayton, Missouri. She says the abuse began when she was three years old and Sam was 12.

Her complaint states the abuse continued into a period when Sam Altman had reached adulthood. He is now 40 years old.
In a filing submitted Wednesday night in St. Louis federal court, Altman’s legal team argued that Missouri’s child sexual abuse statute does not allow punitive damages. They say the law limits recovery to damages tied directly to injury or illness.
Altman also argued that punitive damages cannot apply to conduct he allegedly committed while he was a minor. He renewed his request for the court to dismiss the lawsuit entirely.
Lawyers for Annie Altman did not respond to requests for comment after business hours.
Altman has filed a defamation countersuit against his sister over statements she made on social media. One post included a video referring to “an almost tech billionaire” who she said had abused her.
He is seeking just $1 in damages. Altman stated he does not want to cause his sister financial harm but wants a court ruling declaring her statements untrue.
The Altman family has said publicly that Annie Altman has struggled with mental health issues and had previously received financial support from the family. Altman’s filing claims the abuse allegations followed the family’s refusal to meet what he described as growing demands for money.
Annie Altman’s legal team has not publicly responded to those claims.
Altman is also facing a high-profile lawsuit from Elon Musk. Musk’s case, valued at more than $134 billion, accuses OpenAI of departing from its original mission to develop AI for the benefit of humanity. Musk also alleges he was defrauded into donating to the organization.
Microsoft is named as a co-defendant in that case.
The trial in the Musk lawsuit is scheduled for April 27, 2026.
Altman became a widely recognized figure in the tech world after OpenAI launched ChatGPT in 2022. The Wednesday night court filing in his sister’s case is his latest legal move as both lawsuits continue to develop.
The post Sam Altman’s Sister Says He Abused Her. Now He’s Fighting Her Lawsuit in Court appeared first on CoinCentral.


