A bankruptcy judge in Houston on Friday ordered the liquidation and sale of Infowars conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ personal assets, with the proceeds to be distributed to the Sandy Hook families. But the judge spared Mr. Jones the closure of his Infowars business empire.
The ruling allows Mr. Jones to continue broadcasting on Infowars while the families continue to demand payment of the huge defamation damages they were awarded.
The result sharply divided the Sandy Hook families. Families who sued Mr. Jones in Texas supported Friday’s decision, which will keep Mr. Jones on the air but may allow them more damages from Infowars revenue. Families suing Mr. Jones in Connecticut preferred to settle for less money and fire Mr. Jones, although they acknowledged that he would not be completely silenced.
Either way, the families are unlikely to see the damage any time soon. Mr Jones is appealing the sentences against him, a battle that is expected to take years.
Estimates in court filings put the value of Mr. Jones’s personal assets at less than $5 million, nowhere near the $1.4 billion that jurors in Texas and Connecticut awarded the families in late 2022.
Dividing $5 million between the plaintiffs entitled to damages results in less than $250,000 each. However, this does not include the significant legal and administrative costs associated with insolvency, which are paid first.
The judge’s decision came nearly a dozen years after 20 first-graders and six educators died in the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012.
Mr. Jones spent years spreading lies that the massacre was a hoax designed to confiscate Americans’ firearms and that the victims’ families were involved in the conspiracy. The families endured online abuse, face-to-face confrontations and death threats from people who believed in the conspiracy theory.
“The right decision is to dismiss this case,” Judge Christopher Lopez said in court Friday afternoon, referring to his decision to reject bankruptcy and keep Infowars in business. “This case is one of the more difficult cases I have ever had, but when you look at it, I think the creditors are better served.”
In 2018, relatives of 10 victims sued Mr. Jones for defamation and won more than $1.4 billion in damages in lawsuits in Texas and Connecticut.
When the cases ended up in court in 2022, Mr. Jones’ company filed for bankruptcy. Mr. Jones filed for personal bankruptcy shortly thereafter. The families suing Mr. Jones in Connecticut and Texas agreed with the judge’s decision that Mr. Jones’s personal assets should be liquidated under Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code and the proceeds of the sale divided among them.
Mr. Jones has prepared for this outcome by compiling an inventory of property, precious metals, weapons, boats and other possessions in preparation for a sale. This included obtaining court approval to sell a 127-acre game ranch in Kingsbury, Texas, as appraised at $2.8 million. Mr Jones’s lawyer, Vickie Driver, told the court that the property had been sold and the money would be transferred “on day one” for distribution to the families.
But the Connecticut and Texas sides disagreed sharply over how to proceed against Free Speech Systems, his company. Lawyers for the families who sued Mr. Jones in Connecticut – the families of a total of eight victims – argued for the company to be closed and its assets liquidated, with the money distributed among family members.
The proceeds would be minimal, but attorneys for the Connecticut families argued that closing Infowars was more important than money.
“Ultimately this was about holding Alex Jones accountable for his lies and the harm he has caused not only to the Sandy Hook families but to so many other families and society,” said Robbie Parker, his daughter Emilie died in the shooting, he said in comments texted to The New York Times.
Avi Moshenberg, a lawyer for the families suing in Texas, said in his closing statement that he was surprised by the bitterness among the lawyers who once united against Mr. Jones.
“The standard is not, ‘What’s the worst thing you can do to Alex Jones to make him suffer?'” It’s in the best interest of creditors,” he said.
Mr. Jones has made a fortune spreading conspiracy theories on his show while selling nutritional supplements, survival gear and other goods. He has sparked outrage among his listeners in recent weeks over Connecticut lawyers’ liquidation efforts, crying and screaming about what he falsely claimed was a government-backed conspiracy to shut down Infowars and silence him bring to.
“I’m kind of in the bunker here – and don’t worry, I’ll be back,” he said on his Infowars show earlier this month. Lawyers for Mr. Jones said on Friday that the transfers had resulted in record sales of his products of $1 million a week, an increase of about 40 percent.
Mr. Jones has also strongly recommended that potential buyers of his supplements instead purchase them from his father, whose Dr. Jones’ Naturals is called. Mr. Jones’ father has been a financier and management consultant for Infowars for decades. Connecticut lawyers used these statements in court to bolster their argument that he could not be trusted to work in good faith to pay the families if he retained control of his company.
The families’ lawyers agreed that regardless of the judge’s decision, Mr. Jones will eventually merge under a different company name. Because of a previous court ruling that allows the families to prosecute him for the amounts owed to them for the rest of his life, they could also prosecute him for that income.
Mr. Moshenberg said lawyers would continue to press for Mr. Jones’ commitment that he would not lie about the shooting and would mention the victims or their families again on his show, a priority for all families.
“There was a lot of talk about whether Jones would regain control of his company, but the reality is that he never really lost it,” Judge Lopez said Friday.
At one point in his remarks, the judge found it difficult to compose himself and declared: “There are no words” to describe the impact on the families of years of slanderous lies about them by Mr. Jones. He said he regretted issuing his decision at the start of Father’s Day weekend, “but here we are.”
Source link
2024-06-15 00:50:36
www.nytimes.com