Alex Jones’ Infowars is sold to pay for Sandy Hook Families

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones The Infowars media platform and its assets will be sold piece by piece at auction this fall to help pay the more than $1 billion it owes to relatives of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims, under an order that expected to be approved by a federal judge.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez in Houston said during a hearing Tuesday that he will approve the auctions that begin in November. But he said he must first amend an earlier order to clarify that the trustee overseeing Jones’ personal bankruptcy case controls all assets of Infowars parent company Free Speech Systems, which is 100% owned by Jones.

Despite the impending loss of his business, Jones vows to continue his talk shows in other ways, possibly including a new website and his personal social media accounts. He has also suggested that Infowars’ assets could be purchased by his supporters, allowing him to continue hosting his show as an employee under the Infowars brand in their hometown of Austin, Texas.

“It’s very precarious that Free Speech Systems’ assets, the website, the equipment, the shopping cart, all of that, can be sold,” Jones said on a recent show. “And they know very well that there are some Patriot buyers, and then the operation can be relaxed.”

Jones and his company both filed for bankruptcy protection in 2022 — the same year the Sandy Hook families lived has won nearly $1.5 billion in defamation and emotional distress against Jones for repeatedly calling the 2012 school shooting a hoax staged by “crisis actors” to push through more gun control legislation. Twenty first-graders and six teachers were killed in the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.

During two civil trials in Texas and Connecticut, parents and children of many of the victims testified that they were traumatized by Jones’s hoax conspiracies and the actions of his followers. They said they were harassed and threatened by Jones’ believers, some of whom personally confronted the grieving families, saying the shooting never happened and their children never existed. One parent said someone threatened to dig up his dead son’s grave.

Jones is appealing the civil jury verdicts, citing the right to free speech and questioning whether the families have proven any connection between his comments and the people who harassed and threatened the family members. He has since acknowledged that the shooting occurred.

In June, Lopez converted into personal bankruptcy of Jones reorganization case converted into a liquidation, meaning many of his assets will be sold to pay creditors, with the exception of his primary residence and other exempt properties. On the same day, Lopez also dismissed Free Speech Systems’ bankruptcy case after Jones and the families were unable to agree on a final plan.

The sell-off order that Lopez wants to approve would put Infowars’ intellectual property up for auction on Nov. 13, including its trademarks, copyrighted material, social media accounts and websites. Jones’ personal social media sites, including his account on the social platform X, which has 2.8 million followers, would not be included.

However, the trustee overseeing Jones’ bankruptcy case, Christopher Murray, said Tuesday that he may soon seek court permission to also liquidate Jones’ personal social media accounts and his other intellectual properties — which Jones’ attorneys are focusing on. have opposed. That issue could develop into a new trial in the bankruptcy case. Murray is also expected to sell many of Jones’ personal belongings.

The Sandy Hook families who won the Connecticut lawsuit want Jones to lose his personal social media accounts. Their lawyers further argue that the families should get a share of all of Jones’ future earnings to pay off his more than $1 billion debt.

Christopher Mattei, an attorney for the Sandy Hook families in the Connecticut lawsuit, said the judge’s signing of the auction order will be “an important step forward” in the family’s efforts to make Jones pay for his hoax. lies.

“Alex Jones will no longer own or control the company he built,” Mattei said in a statement Tuesday. “This brings the families closer to their goal of holding him accountable for the harm he caused.”

The remainder of Infowars’ assets, including computers, video cameras and other studio equipment, were scheduled to be sold at another auction on December 10.

Jones has made millions of dollars over the years selling nutritional supplements, clothing, survival gear, books and other items that he promotes on his shows, which air on the Internet and on dozens of radio stations. It is unclear how much money would be raised by selling the Infowars and Jones assets, and how much money the Sandy Hook families would get.

Jones has approximately $9 million in personal assets, according to court records. According to previous court testimony, Free Speech Systems has approximately $6 million in cash and approximately $1.2 million in inventory on hand.

Attorneys, financial experts and others who worked on Jones’ bankruptcy cases — which collected millions of dollars in fees and expenses — are expected to be paid first.

A remaining legal dispute in the bankruptcy case is whether Free Speech Systems owes more than $50 million to another Jones company, PQPR Holdings Limited. Free Speech Systems purchases nutritional supplements from PQPR to sell on the Infowars website. PQPR said it had not been paid for many of the supplements and filed liens. Sandy Hook’s attorneys claim the debt is bogus.

If the debt is found to be valid, it could reduce the amount of money the Sandy Hook families ultimately get from the liquidations.