Mike Lindell ordered to pay $5 million to man who 'proved' there was no election interference after MyPillow CEO's contest for anyone to submit evidence demonstrating he was wrong

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell was ordered by a federal judge to pay $5 million to a software developer who won his 'Prove Mike Wrong' challenge. 

Lindell initiated a contest after the 2020 election challenging participants to prove data that the pillow company founder provided wasn't real election data. 

Robert Zeidman, a software developer, took Lindell up on the challenge and submitted a 15-page report.

Zeidman's report proved that Lindell's data wasn't complete and that it didn't represent data that could have possibly been collected in real time from the internet.

Initially, Zeidman lost the challenge - but he took Lindell to arbitration and won. 

MyPillow chief executive Mike Lindell speaks to reporters outside federal court in Washington, June 24, 2021

Lindell initiated a contest after the 2020 election challenging participants to prove data that the pillow company founder provided wasn't real election data

Lindell hoped that the federal judge would rule in his favor and wipe the $5 million reward promised by the challenge.

However, on Wednesday the federal judge affirmed the $5 million arbitration award against the MyPillow executive. 

Lindell said he plans to appeal. Asked if he can afford to pay, he pointed out that the breach-of-contract lawsuit was against one of his companies, Lindell Management LLC, and not against him personally.

'Of course we're going to appeal it. This guy doesn't have a dime coming,' Lindell said.

Lindell, a prominent promoter of false claims that voting machines were manipulated to steal the 2020 election, launched his 'Prove Mike Wrong Challenge,' as part of a 'Cyber Symposium' he hosted in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in August 2021. 

Lindell offered a $5 million reward through Lindell Management for anyone who could prove that 'packet captures' and other data he released there were not valid data 'from the November 2020 election.'

Zeidman then entered the challenge with his 15-page report that concluded the data from Lindell don't 'contain packet data of any kind and do not contain any information related to the November 2020 election' 

Robert Zeidman(pictured), a software developer, took Lindell up on the challenge and submitted a 15-page report

Lindell has been upfront about his financial woes since he peddled the conspiracy that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump 

A panel of contest judges that included a Lindell attorney declined to declare Zeidman a winner. 

Zeidman filed for arbitration under the contest rules. 

A panel of three arbitrators last April unanimously ordered Lindell to pay Zeidman $5 million, concluding that he had satisfied the contest rules. 

In Wednesday's ruling, U.S. District Judge John Tunheim expressed concern about how the panel interpreted what he called a 'poorly written contract,' but said courts have only limited authority to overrule arbitration awards. 

He ordered Lindell to pay up with interest within 30 days.

Lindell is also the subject of a $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems in the District of Columbia that says he falsely accused the company of rigging the 2020 presidential election. 

He´s also the target of a separate defamation lawsuit in Minnesota by a different voting machine company, Smartmatic.