On Friday, a federal judge dismissed the bankruptcy case of Infowars’ parent company, Free Speech Systems, but ordered the liquidation of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ personal assets.
Given that Jones owes $1.5 billion for his erroneous assertions that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a fabrication, the decisions cast doubt on the viability of his Infowars media business.
Judge Christopher Lopez dismissed Jones’s attempt to reorganize his firm, Free Speech Systems, located in Austin, Texas, but allowed Jones’ proposed personal bankruptcy reorganization to be converted to a liquidation. A large number of Sandy Hook families have requested that the business be liquidated as well.
What would happen to the business that Jones spent the last 25 years growing into a multimillion dollar profit center was not immediately apparent.
According to attorneys involved in the case, one outcome might be that the business and Infowars are permitted to continue operating while efforts are undertaken in state courts in Texas and Connecticut to collect on the $1.5 billion debt, where the families were successful in their claims against Jones.
Another possibility is that, since Jones is the business’s owner, the Sandy Hook families’ attorneys would return to the bankruptcy court and request that Lopez liquidate the firm as part of Jones’ individual case.
Jones’s principal residence in the Austin region and a few other possessions that are not subject to bankruptcy liquidation are anticipated to remain in his possession despite the sale of many of his personal assets. He has previously taken steps to pay off debts by selling his about $2.8 million Texas ranch, his collection of guns, and other valuables.
After the judge made the decision regarding Jones’s personal assets, Jones did not really respond. When the hearing started this morning, every seat in the gallery was occupied, according to CBS affiliate KHOU.
Jones has been informing his listeners on the radio and online that Free Speech Systems, the parent company of Infowars, is about to go out of business due to bankruptcy. On Infowars’ website on Friday, a headline said, “Watch Live! Is Today The Last Infowars Transmission Day?
“Infowars will most likely cease operations here very soon. Before the hearing started, Jones told reporters, “If not today, in the next few weeks or months.” “But it’s just the beginning of my fight against tyranny.”
If his fans wish to keep purchasing the nutritional supplements he promotes on his show, Jones has been advising them to download the videos from his internet archive in order to save them and directing them to the new website of his father’s business.
After the families of numerous victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting in 2012—which claimed the lives of 20 first-graders and six teachers in Newtown, Connecticut—won lawsuit judgments totaling more than $1.4 billion in Connecticut and $49 million in Texas, Jones and Free Speech Systems filed for bankruptcy protection in 2022.
The Sandy Hook families’ attorneys have been pursuing liquidation.
According to Chris Mattei, an attorney for the families in the Connecticut lawsuit, “doing so will enable the Connecticut families to enforce their $1.4 billion in judgments now and into the future while also depriving Jones of the ability to inflict mass harm as he has done for about 25 years.”
The relatives claimed that Jones’ remarks and the deeds of his supporters had traumatized them. They claimed that Jones’ followers had intimidated and harassed them, and some of them had personally contacted the bereaved families, telling them that the shooting had never taken place and that their children had never lived. Someone allegedly threatened to unearth the grave of one parent’s deceased son.
Before the hearing, Robbie Parker, whose daughter Emily was one of the victims of the shooting, told CBS News that he was “part of a healing process” when he saw Jones accept responsibility.
“There’s the forgiveness part, that’s a very internal, very sacred and personal thing, and then there’s the things that you see in your life that have been impacted by things that Alex Jones has done, and so that accountability helps bring another layer of closure,” Parker explained.
At first, Jones and Free Speech Systems filed for bankruptcy reorganization protection, which would have given him the ability to continue running Infowars and providing the families with earnings from his program. However, the parties were unable to come to a final agreement, and Jones recently requested permission to change the status of his personal bankruptcy from reorganization to liquidation.
Families in the Connecticut litigation, including those of eight deceased adults and children, have requested that the bankruptcy case of Free Speech Systems be moved to a liquidation as well. However, the parents in the Texas lawsuit, whose 6-year-old son Jesse Lewis passed away, want the company’s complaint to be dropped.
Just because you forgive someone doesn’t mean you forget them, as Jesse’s mother Scarlett Lewis stated to CBS News prior to the judge’s decision. “They need to be held accountable so they don’t do it to someone else.”
Attorneys for Jones’ personal bankruptcy case submitted a motion on Wednesday, stating that Jones does not support the plan and requests that the judge dismiss the company’s case. The company’s attorneys had filed paperwork suggesting that the corporation supported liquidation.
The corporation might revert to its pre-award position of $1.5 billion following the dismissal of the Free Speech Systems lawsuit. The state courts in Connecticut and Texas would once again be involved in the effort to recover the damages. That might provide Infowars with a longer lifeline while the gathering process was underway.
Jones has been claiming on his recent broadcasts that Democrats and the “deep state” are planning to shut down his enterprises and take away his free speech rights because of his views, even though he has now conceded that the Sandy Hook shooting occurred. In addition, he said that the Sandy Hook families were being played like puppets in a plot. That’s absurd, according to the families’ attorneys.
As per the latest financial records submitted to the bankruptcy court, Jones possesses around $9 million in assets, which include his $2.6 million Austin-area residence and additional real estate. In April alone, he reported living expenses of almost $69,000, which included roughly $16,500 for residential expenses.
Free Speech Systems, a 44-person company, reported $1.9 million in expenses for April but gained close to $3.2 million from sales of dietary supplements, apparel, and other products that Jones endorses on his show.
Jones is being sued by the families in Texas for allegedly unlawfully diverting and concealing millions of dollars. Jones has refuted the accusations.