Alex Jones Seeks To Liquidate His Holdings As He Faces Sandy Hook Defamation Judgment
Alex Jones is seeking a court greenlight to liquidate his holdings, as he faces about $1.5 billion in defamation judgments stemming from his promotion of false conspiracy theories related to the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting massacre.
Jones filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2022 as he was found liable to Sandy Hook families for spreading the lies about the school shooting. Jones had asserted that the shootings were staged as part of a federal plot to confiscate Americans’ guns.
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In court proceedings in Connecticut and Texas, Jones was slapped with around $1.5 billion in damages, as the families sued the Infowars host and his companies for defamation. They testified that they were subjected to continued threats and harassment.
In the federal court filing, Jones’ attorneys wrote that he “does not believe his own estate would continue to benefit by remaining in chapter 11. Furthermore, the Debtor does not anticipate that a resolution may be reached with the other parties in interest sufficient to confirm a chapter 11 plan of reorganization. Thus, drawing out the chapter 11 process merely to complete the liquidation process would result in additional administrative expense with little benefit to the Debtor’s estate.”
The Sandy Hook families had rejected Jones’ offer to settle the case for $55 million, per Reuters. Instead, they sought a court order to convert the bankruptcy to a Chapter 7 liquidation.
As Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems, were in bankruptcy reorganization, a federal judge found that the vast majority of the defamation judgments could not be discharged.
In seeking liquidation, the families cited a June 1 episode of Jones’ podcast in which he made threatening statements about the chief restructuring officer of Free Speech Systems.
The families’ attorneys wrote, “Jones’s threats and clear lack of respect for the judicial system — amounting at times to calls for his followers to ‘surround the building’ and physically barricade the FSS studios if FSS’s operations are threatened—should not be condoned. Among other things, Jones has made it clear that upon dismissal, FSS will return to business as usual, and that he intends to stall any lawful collection efforts of the Connecticut families—whether by physical force or otherwise.”
“A court-supervised liquidation directed by a court-appointed trustee would ensure that proceeds are fairly and equitably distributed to creditors who have, to date, received no recovery,” the attorneys wrote.
The families’ legal team also noted that Jones had transferred two luxury vehicles and $1.5 million to his wife, and three luxury vehicles, a ranch and more than $500,000 in cash to his father.
CNN first reported on the move for liquidation.
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