A Nobel Prize-winning economist has sued his former lawyer for more than $1 million in damages after claiming his attorney failed to file divorce papers in time to prevent his ex-wife from claiming some of his Nobel Prize money, Bloomberg reports.

Joseph E. Stiglitz, 68, alleges he lost more than $5 million because his lawyer had questionable “loyalties,” according to court documents. His lawyer had reportedly never told him that he had consulted with his ex-wife, Jane Hannaway, about a potential divorce before he hired the attorney in 2000.

In addition, Stiglitz said in court papers that he asked his attorney to file divorce papers in Washington multiple times in 2000 and 2001 in order to protect his finances, which was not done, reported the source.

A court complaint said Stiglitz expected that, “certain future publications he was working on, along with the potential award of the Nobel Prize in Economics in October 2001, would generate income which he wished to protect from being awarded in a divorce to Hannaway.”

Stiglitz shared the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2001 for demonstrating how markets are inefficient when all parties in a transaction don’t have equal access to critical information. Stiglitz is currently a professor of economics at Columbia University.

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