HOUSTON – A federal judge ordered the liquidation of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ personal assets Friday but was still deciding his company’s separate bankruptcy case, leaving the future of his Infowars media platform uncertain as he 1, owes $5 billion for his false claims that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax.
Judge Christopher Lopez approved the conversion of Jones’ proposed personal bankruptcy reorganization into a liquidation. He heard testimony Friday afternoon on whether Infowars’ parent company, Texas-based Free Speech Systems, should also be liquidated.
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 moved to sell his Texas ranch worth about $2.8 million, a gun collection and other assets to pay debts.
A liquidation of Free Speech Systems would mean Jones losing control of the company and his assets would be sold. He would lose the Infowars studios in Austin and associated equipment, the company’s social media accounts and all copyrights. A trustee would oversee the company and its liquidation. The Sandy Hook families also want Jones to lose his personal social media accounts, but he is against that. Some of Jones’ supporters, including former Donald Trump adviser Roger Stone, have suggested they might try to buy Infowars.
Jones did not appear to react when the judge ruled on his personal assets, but he became more animated when the discussion turned to the possible liquidation of Free Speech Systems. At times, he muttered under his breath or shook his head as attorneys for some Sandy Hook families discussed statements Jones made on his Infowars show this week.
Attorneys for the Sandy Hook families believe Jones would continue to broadcast his show in some other way. They told the judge they plan to go after his future earnings. Jones has told his audience that he will return, claiming that losing his business would only make him more popular.
“This is probably the end of Infowars here very, very quickly. If not today, then in the coming weeks or months,” Jones told reporters before Friday’s hearing. “But it is just the beginning of my fight against tyranny.”
He tells his followers to download videos from his online archive to save them, and directs them to a new website for his father’s company if they want to continue buying the nutritional supplements he sells on his show.
Jones has about $9 million in personal assets, according to the most recent financial filings with the court. 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, the chief restructuring officer appointed by the court to manage the company during the lead to bankruptcy.
Jones and Free Speech Systems filed for bankruptcy protection in 2022, when family members of many victims of the 2012 school shooting that killed 20 first-graders and six educators in Newtown, Connecticut, won lawsuits worth more than $1.4 billion in Connecticut and $49 million in Texas. .
Chris Mattei, an attorney for the families in the Connecticut case, said liquidating Free Speech Systems “would allow Connecticut families to enforce their $1.4 billion judgments now and in the future, while Jones would also be deprived of the opportunity to inflict massive damage as he did. have been doing so for about 25 years.”
The family members said they were traumatized by Jones’ comments and the actions of his followers. They testified that they were harassed and threatened by Jones’ believers, some of whom personally confronted the grieving families and said the shooting never happened and their children never existed. One parent said someone threatened to dig up his dead son’s grave.
Jones and Free Speech Systems initially filed for bankruptcy reorganization protection, which would have allowed him to run Infowars while paying the families with revenue from his show. But the two sides couldn’t agree on a final plan, and Jones recently requested permission to convert his personal bankruptcy from a reorganization to a liquidation.
The families in the Connecticut lawsuit, including relatives of eight dead children and adults, have asked that Free Speech Systems’ bankruptcy case also be converted into a liquidation. But the parents in the Texas case — whose child, six-year-old Jesse Lewis, died — want the company’s case dismissed.
Lawyers for the company have filed documents showing it supports the liquidation, but lawyers for Jones’ personal bankruptcy case want the judge to dismiss the company’s case.
If Free Speech Systems’ case is dismissed, the company could return to the same position it found itself in after the $1.5 billion award in the lawsuits. Efforts to collect damages would go back to state courts in Texas and Connecticut. That could give Infowars an extended lifeline.
It could also lead to a “race to the courthouse,” said Kyle Kimler, an attorney for the families seeking liquidation. It’s possible for one family to get everything while another family gets nothing, he added.
“I want to see a case converted to a Chapter 7 (liquidation) so that the collected assets can be fairly distributed to creditors,” he said.
Although Jones has since acknowledged that the Sandy Hook shooting occurred, he has said in his recent shows that Democrats and the “deep state” are conspiring to shut down his businesses and take away his rights to free speech. He has also said that the Sandy Hook families are being used as pawns in the conspiracy. The families’ lawyers say that is nonsense.
The families have a pending lawsuit in Texas accusing Jones of illegally diverting and concealing millions of dollars. Jones has denied the allegations.
