Four months after criminal charges were filed against him in Hancock County, a former staffer for late Senate candidate Max Linn is now facing a civil suit in federal court.
Matthew T. McDonald, 42, is being sued by Linn’s former wife, Hanna Aquino, over allegations that McDonald stole more than $225,000 from her and Linn, who passed away in December 2021.
McDonald, a Maine pastor who worked for Linn on his campaigns for U.S. Senate in 2018 and 2020, is facing felony theft charges in Hancock County over the same allegations. The criminal charges are still pending, with McDonald scheduled to appear in court in November for a dispositional conference.
McDonald did not respond to a voicemail message left for him Tuesday afternoon.
Linn was a wealthy retired financial planner who spent the core part of his business career in Florida, where he colorfully ran for offices including governor as a Reform Party candidate in 2006.
His later campaigns in Maine for U.S. Senate garnered significant attention because of his support and mimicry of then-President Donald Trump, but he was kicked off the 2018 GOP primary ballot due to fraudulent signatures and then finished last in the 2020 race.
In the civil complaint, which was filed Monday in federal court in Portland, Aquino and Susan Englar, the personal representative of Linn’s estate, accuse McDonald of 11 offenses, including fraud, breach of contract, unjust enrichment, negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress, among others.
Linn and Aquino lived in Bar Harbor during his Senate campaigns, but Aquino and Englar currently live in St. Petersburg, Florida, according to the federal complaint. McDonald is listed in court documents as a resident of the town of Hancock.
The claims in the civil suit mirror the criminal allegations against McDonald, who is accused of taking money from Linn for the purpose of investing in cryptocurrency, but of failing to maintain that investment and not returning the funds to either Linn or Aquino.
The federal civil complaint goes into a little more detail than the criminal court documents filed in Ellsworth. Citing police reports, the civil complaint says that McDonald told police he made the cryptocurrency investments in his own name, rather than in Linn’s or Aquino’s, and that he “liquidated” the investments when Linn allegedly sought to use the cryptocurrency to buy drugs.
McDonald’s accusations against Linn came to light when McDonald filed an application for a protection-from-harassment order against Linn in Hancock County in October of 2021. Linn strongly denied the accusations, including McDonald’s claim that Linn pointed a gun at him as part of the dispute.
When he was interviewed by police about the cryptocurrency investment, McDonald said that liquidating the funds “might not have been the right thing to do but didn’t want to be involved in drug dealing and that he was told that it was just an investment,” according to the federal complaint.
McDonald told police he liquidated the cryptocurrency by investing it in the futures market, where it promptly was lost.
“He stated that in 40 minutes, all of it was gone,” the federal complaint says, quoting the police report.
Aquino and Englar also claim that McDonald’s actions had “serious impacts on Linn’s and Aquino’s mental and physical health, including severe stress.”
About two months after the dispute between McDonald and Linn spilled over into public view, Linn died from a heart attack.
“Aquino discovered her husband in a hot tub, and his death has caused severe emotional distress to Aquino,” the complaint says.
McDonald is expected to file a response to the civil complaint within 21 days, according to documents filed in federal court.