Alex Jones’ assets will be sold to pay $1.5 billion debt to Sandy Hook

Houston – A federal judge on Friday ordered the liquidation of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones′ personal assets, but dismissed his company’s separate bankruptcy case, leaving the future of his Infowars media platform uncertain as he owes $1.5 billion for his false claims that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting it was a hoax.

Judge Christopher Lopez approved the conversion of Jones’ personal bankruptcy recovery proposal to liquidation but rejected the attempted reorganization of his company, Free Speech Systems, based in Austin, Texas. Many of the Sandy Hook families called for the company to be liquidated as well.

If Free Speech Systems’ bankruptcy had been converted into liquidation, Jones could have lost ownership of the company, its social media accounts, the Infowars studio in Austin, and all royalties as the company’s assets were sold. . Jones smiled when the judge dismissed the company’s case.

It was not immediately clear what will happen to Free Speech Systems, the Infowars parent company that Jones has turned into a multimillion-dollar cash cow over the past 25 years.

One scenario could be that the company and Infowars could continue operating while efforts to collect the $1.5 billion debt proceed in state courts in Texas and Connecticut, where the families have won lawsuits against Jones, according to lawyers. involved in the case.

Another scenario is that lawyers for the Sandy Hook families go back to bankruptcy court and ask Lopez to liquidate the company as part of Jones’ personal case because Jones owns the business, the lawyers said.

Lopez said his sole focus in determining whether to dismiss the Free Speech Systems case or order a liquidation was what would be best for the company and its creditors, including the Sandy Hook families. Lopez also said the Free Speech Systems case appears to be one of the oldest of its kind in the country and that the deadline to resolve it is approaching.

“I have never been asked today to make a decision whether or not to end a show. That would never happen today, one way or another,” Lopez said. “This case is one of the most difficult cases I have ever had. When you look at it, I think creditors are better served in pursuing their state court rights.”

Many of Jones’ personal assets will be sold, but his primary Austin-area home and some other belongings are exempt from bankruptcy liquidation. He has already decided to sell his Texas ranch, valued at around $2.8 million, a collection of weapons and other assets to pay off debts.

Before Friday’s hearing, Jones had told his viewers and radio listeners that Free Speech Systems was on the verge of being shut down because of bankruptcy. He encouraged them to download videos from his online archive to preserve them and directed them to a new website for his father’s company if they wanted to continue purchasing the dietary supplements he sells on his show.

“This is probably the end of Infowars here very, very soon. If not today, in the next few weeks or months,” Jones told reporters before Friday’s hearing. “But this is just the beginning of my fight against tyranny.”

Jones has about $9 million in personal assets, according to the most recent court financial filings. Free Speech Systems, which employs 44 people, has about $6 million in cash on hand and about $1.2 million in inventory, according to J. Patrick Magill, court-appointed chief restructuring officer to run the company during bankruptcy.

Jones and free speech systems filed for bankruptcy protection in 2022, when relatives of many victims of the 2012 school shooting that killed 20 first graders and six educators in Newtown, Connecticut, won court sentences of more than $1.4 billion in Connecticut It is $49 million in Texas.

Chris Mattei, an attorney for the families in the Connecticut case, said the liquidation of Free Speech Systems “would allow the Connecticut families to assert their $1.4 billion in judgments now and in the future, while depriving Jones of the ability to inflict mass damage as he did.” made about 25 years ago.”

Relatives said they were traumatized by Jones’ comments and the actions of his followers. They testified about being harassed and threatened by Jones believers, some of whom personally confronted the grieving families, saying the shooting never happened and their children never existed. A father said someone threatened to dig up his dead son’s grave.

Jones and Free Speech Systems initially filed for bankruptcy protection that would have allowed him to run Infowars while paying families with proceeds from his program. But the two sides were unable to agree on a final plan, and Jones recently requested permission to change your personal bankruptcy from a reorganization to a liquidation.

The families in the Connecticut lawsuit, including relatives of eight dead children and adults, asked that the Free Speech Systems bankruptcy case also be converted to liquidation. But the parents in the Texas lawsuit — whose son, 6-year-old Jesse Lewis, died — want the company’s case dismissed.

The company’s lawyers filed documents indicating that it supported liquidation, but lawyers in Jones’ personal bankruptcy case wanted the judge to dismiss the company’s case.

Kyle Kimpler, an attorney for the families seeking settlement, told the judge that dismissing the case could lead to a “race to court.” It’s possible for one family to get everything while another gets nothing, he added.

Although Jones has since acknowledged that the Sandy Hook shooting happened, he has said on his recent shows that Democrats and the “deep state” are conspiring to shut down his companies and take away his free speech rights. He also said that the Sandy Hook families are being used as pawns in the conspiracy. Lawyers for the families say this is absurd.

The families have a lawsuit pending in Texas accusing Jones of illegally embezzling and hiding millions of dollars. Jones denied the allegations.

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Collins reported from Hartford, Connecticut.