Bankruptcy court administrator in Alex Jones liquidation case predicts ‘dissolution’ of media company

A federal bankruptcy court trustee appointed to oversee the liquidation of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ estate is asking a judge to temporarily block families and other creditors from seizing assets related to his media company while he prepares “an orderly process of liquidation” and sale.

The trustee, Christopher Murray, “seeks this Court’s intervention to prevent a destructive money grab and allow an orderly process to take its course,” according to his emergency filing Sunday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas .

The move came after families who won a 2022 Texas defamation lawsuit against Jones asked a state district court judge to force his Free Speech Systems, which operates the Infowars platform, to turn over “all money,” including “cash held in any bank accounts”. or being controlled by any other third party at the direction” of the media company.

But Murray said in his order that the “spectre of a disorderly seizure of FSS assets, including its cash, threatens to throw the business into chaos, potentially paralyzing it, to the detriment of the interests of the Chapter 7 estate.” for which the Administrator is responsible.”

The administrator’s challenge is just the latest in the legal saga involving Jones, who broadcasts in the Austin area. He was sued in Texas and Connecticut by families who claimed he defamed them and inflicted emotional distress by repeatedly suggesting on his show that the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre was a hoax. A gunman killed 20 first graders and six adults at their school in Newtown, Connecticut.

The families received $1.5 billion in total in their lawsuits, but were unable to collect anything from Jones, who claimed he could not pay such a large sum and filed for bankruptcy after the verdicts.

During a hearing this month, federal bankruptcy judge Christopher Lopez agreed to allow Jones to convert his bankruptcy filing into a liquidation of his personal assets to help pay the settlements.

But in a ruling favorable to Jones, the judge dismissed a separate bankruptcy case involving Free Speech Systems. This allowed Jones to continue broadcasting, although the future of his Infowars show remained uncertain and he had hinted for weeks that it might come to an end.

At his 2022 Texas defamation trial, Jones generally blamed the “corporate media” for twisting his words and portraying him poorly, but did not specify how.

Jones’ attorney, Vickie Driver, said at this month’s bankruptcy hearing that there is money that could go to the trustee in the form of the $2.8 million sale of Jones’ Texas ranch.

Court records indicate Jones has about $9 million in personal assets, while Free Speech Systems holds about $6 million in cash, with more than $1 million in inventory.

Driver did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.

An attorney for the families in the Connecticut lawsuit against Jones said they supported the liquidation of Free Speech Systems because they feared it would lead to individual families fighting over the company’s assets in state courts.

“This is precisely the unfortunate situation Connecticut families hoped to avoid when we argued that the Free Speech Systems/InfoWars case should have remained in bankruptcy court rather than being dismissed,” attorney Christopher Mattei said in a statement. “Connecticut families are disappointed by this attempt to undermine the orderly and long-awaited shutdown of Alex Jones’ InfoWars platform.”

Murray wants the court to impose a 90-day pause on any collection action by creditors against Free Speech Systems. It’s unclear when the judge might rule.