Christopher Ambrose filed an emergency motion on Wednesday asking a federal judge to seal his financial records from public view.

In the motion, he disclosed that he has been liquidating assets. This contradicts his sworn affidavit of poverty, which allowed him to sue without paying a $405 filing fee.

Ambrose’s emergency motion, filed April 9 in U.S. District Court in Connecticut, comes five days before his April 14 deadline to produce bank records, retirement accounts, and a lease ordered by Judge Sarala Nagala on March 31. Among the documents Ambrose says he intends to submit is a “Summary of Asset Liquidation and Corresponding Bank Deposits.”

On his March 2025 poverty affidavit, Ambrose swore he had only $294.98 in cash — $110 short of the filing fee he claimed he could not afford. He checked No to every income source. 

Ambrose is a suspended New York attorney and former television writer whose career ended in a plagiarism scandal in 2018. 

He sued psychiatrist Dr. Bandy X. Lee, after she publicly said she scored him at 32 on the Hare Psychopathy Checklist — two points above the clinical threshold — identifying pathological lying, grandiose self-worth, and failure to accept responsibility among his traits. He sued her for saying it.

His daughter Mia, who filed a declaration supporting Lee’s motion to dismiss, states her father’s assets exceed one million dollars.

The Asset Liquidation

One of the challenges Ambrose faces is found in his plan to present his Summary of Asset Liquidation to explain his bank deposits. 

He had sworn in his poverty affidavit that he had no assets, no income, and no bank accounts, other than the $294.98 he disclosed..

But his planned Summary of Asset Liquidation suggests he had assets and converted them into cash — selling stocks, bonds, retirement accounts, or investment portfolios, all of which he swore he had none of, and deposited the proceeds into a bank account of which he said he had sworn he had only $294.98

On his poverty affidavit, Ambrose checked No to owning stocks, bonds, or securities. He disclosed no assets except a used Audi worth less than $5,000 and furniture. 

The bank statements the judge ordered will show all deposits — the money Ambrose deposited into his bank accounts. 

The Summary of Asset Liquidation is his planned explanation: those deposits are not income, he will say, but proceeds from the sale of assets he owned. The problem is that the explanation requires him to prove the assets existed. He swore he had $294.98 and no financial instruments of value. He will not be able to explain bank deposits by pointing to assets he did not disclose. 

Whether the deposits are income, proceeds from assets, or both, any answer proves his poverty claim was false.

Who He Wants Kept Away From the Records

Ambrose asks the judge to bar disclosure of his financial records to the public so that three specific people, his ex-wife, Karen Riordan, journalist Richard Luthmann, and this reporter, cannot see them.

These three have been reporting and litigating the following record:

His daughter Mia left his household in August 2024. He called the Madison Police Department to request a Silver Alert. He filed motions in family court claiming she had disappeared. Seven months later, he swore in his poverty affidavit to Judge Nagala that she was a full-time high school student living in his home with his financial support.

Every month Mia was gone, Mia alleged in her sworn declaration that Ambrose collected SNAP benefits at his Connecticut household in her name using her Social Security number.

What the Judge Will See

Ambrose says he wants to file his summary in a sealed envelope delivered by hand to the Hartford clerk’s office — to prevent electronic access before a protective order is entered.

The judge ordered statements for all of Ambrose’s financial accounts under his custody or control as of March 2025 — Bank of America, Fidelity, Eyes Above Productions, Inc., and a copy of his lease at 153 Middle Beach Road.

The judge raised the lease issue because Mia’s declaration alleged Ambrose lied about the amount of rent he paid. 

Ambrose listed his rent as $2,450 on his poverty affidavit. His rent, as confirmed by the actual lease he signed eight months before he filed the affidavit, is $3,750 per month. A difference of $1,300 every month. 

After Lee brought this discrepancy to the court’s attention, Ambrose replied, admitting he paid $1300 more in rent than he disclosed, attributing the discrepancy to “technical confusion between gross and net rental obligations.” 

According to the lease, a copy of which Mia Ambrose provided to the court, there is no gross or net rent. His lease states $3,750 per month for rent on his beachfront home.

What Ambrose Faces

If the documents Ambrose produces on April 14 show his poverty claim was false, the court has no choice under federal law but to dismiss his lawsuit.

If he fails to produce records or produces false ones, he could face obstruction of justice under 18 U.S.C. § 1519. 

The SNAP fraud — collecting benefits in his daughter’s name using her Social Security number while knowing she was not in his household — is a federal crime under 7 U.S.C. § 2024, carrying up to 20 years. Using her Social Security number to obtain those benefits is aggravated identity theft under 18 U.S.C. § 1028A — a mandatory two years that no judge can waive. 

Perjury on the original affidavit carries five years under 18 U.S.C. § 1621. Dr. Lee’s request for a criminal referral to the U.S. Attorney remains pending before Judge Nagala.

See also:

Ambrose Stole His Daughter’s Identity for Food Stamps

Ambrose Has Nine Days to Prove Poverty in Bandy Lee Case

Claiming Poverty From a $2.2M Beach House: The Ambrose Affidavit Story

ARTVOICE ART

Frank Parlato

Frank Parlato is an investigative journalist, media strategist, publisher, and legal consultant.

Frank Parlato

Frank Parlato is an investigative journalist, media strategist, publisher, and legal consultant.

See Full Bio