A federal judge on Friday ordered the liquidation of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones ‘ personal assets, but dismissed his company’s separate bankruptcy filing, leaving the future of his Infowars media platform uncertain as he owes $1.5 billion for his false claims that the Shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School was a hoax.
Judge Christopher Lopez approved the conversion of Jones’ proposed personal bankruptcy reorganization to liquidation, but rejected the attempted reorganization of his company, Free Speech Systems, based in Austin, Texas. Many Sandy Hook families had called for the company to be liquidated as well.
If Free Speech Systems’ bankruptcy reorganization had been converted to liquidation, Jones could have lost ownership of the company, his social media accounts, the Infowars studio in Austin, and all copyrights as the company’s assets were sold. Jones smiled as the judge threw out the company’s case.
It was not immediately clear what would happen to Free Speech Systems, Infowars’ parent company that Jones has built into a multimillion-dollar company over the past 25 years.
One scenario could be that the company and Infowars are allowed to continue operating while efforts to collect the $1.5 billion debt are waged in state courts in Texas and Connecticut, where the families have won lawsuits. lawsuit against Jones, according to attorneys involved in the case.
Another scenario would be for attorneys for the Sandy Hook families to return to bankruptcy court and ask Lopez to liquidate the company as part of Jones’ personnel filing, because Jones owns the company, the attorneys said.
Lopez said his sole focus in determining whether to dismiss 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 appeared to be one of the oldest of its kind in the country and that the deadline to resolve it was approaching.
“I have never been asked today to make the decision whether or not to stop a show. That would never happen today, one way or another,” Lopez said. “This case is one of the most difficult cases I have had. When you look at it, I think creditors are best served when they pursue their rights in state courts.
Many of Jones’ personal assets will be sold, but his primary residence in the Austin area and some other assets are exempt from bankruptcy liquidation. He has already decided to sell his Texas ranch worth around $2.8 million, a gun collection and other assets to pay off his debts.
Before Friday’s hearing, Jones told his Internet and radio listeners that Free Speech Systems was on the verge of being shut down due to bankruptcy. He urged 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 want to continue buying the dietary supplements he sells on his show.
“It’s probably the end of Infowars here very, very soon. If not today, it will be in the coming weeks or months,” Jones told reporters ahead of Friday’s hearing. “But this is only the beginning of my fight against tyranny.”
Jones has approximately $9 million in personal assets, according to the most recent financial documents filed in court. Free Speech Systems, which employs 44 people, has about $6 million in cash and about $1.2 million in inventory, according to J. Patrick Magill, the court-appointed restructuring manager to lead the company. company during bankruptcy.
Jones and Free Speech Systems filed for bankruptcy in 2022, when relatives of many victims of the 2012 school shooting that killed 20 first graders and six educators in Newtown, Connecticut, won their court case. more than $1.4 billion in Connecticut And $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 satisfy their $1.4 billion judgments, now and in the future, while depriving Jones of the ability to inflict massive damage like he did. been doing it for about 25 years.
Relatives said they were traumatized by Jones’ comments and the actions of his supporters. They testified that they were harassed and threatened by Jones’ supporters, some of whom confronted grieving families in person saying the shooting never happened and their children never existed. A parent said someone threatened to dig up her deceased 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 revenue from his show. But the two sides could not agree on a final plan, and Jones recently submitted an application for authorization transition your personal bankruptcy from a reorganization to a liquidation.
Families involved in the Connecticut lawsuit, including relatives of eight deceased children and adults, have requested that Free Speech Systems’ bankruptcy case also be converted to liquidation. But the parents involved in the Texas lawsuit — whose child, 6-year-old Jesse Lewis, died — want the company’s case to be thrown out.
The company’s lawyers filed documents indicating it supported liquidation, but attorneys for Jones’ personal bankruptcy case wanted the judge to throw out the company’s case.
Kyle Kimpler, an attorney for the families in liquidation, had told the judge that dismissing the case could lead to a “run to the courthouse.” It’s possible that one family gets everything while another receives nothing, he added.
Although Jones has since acknowledged that the Sandy Hook shootings took place, he has said on his recent shows that Democrats and the “deep state” were conspiring to shut down his businesses and take away his free speech. He also said the Sandy Hook families were being used as pawns in the plot. The families’ lawyers say this makes no sense.
The families have a lawsuit pending in Texas accusing Jones of embezzling and illegally hiding millions of dollars. Jones has denied the allegations.
