Alex Jones, Who Owes $1.4 Billion for Sandy Hook Lies, Files For Bankruptcy
© Provided by Rolling Stone
Conspiracy theories Alex Jones has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for InfoWars parent company Free Speech Systems LLC.
In a series of defamation trials brought by the families of children killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting, Jones was sentenced to pay a total of almost $1.48 billion in damages. Jones had claimed that the mass shooting was a hoax, and accused both the murdered children and parents of the victims of being actors.
In November, Jones was ordered to pay close to $1 billion in damages as a result of a lawsuit brought by Sandy Hook families in Connecticut. The judge in the trial later tacked on an additional $473 million in legal payments. Families had previously been awarded $42.5 million by a Texas court.
Jones declared in the bankruptcy filing that his assets are worth between $1-10 million. HuffPost obtained court documents in January that revealed that the InfoWars store brought in $165 million over a three-year period. At one point, the website had revenue of over $800,000 a day. As the Jury read out the awarded damages in the Connecticut trial, Jones, who instead of being in court was broadcasting the trial from his studio, mocked the families. “Do these people actually think they’re getting any of this money?”
Throughout litigation, Jones was accused of attempting to hide assets from the court in anticipation of a bankruptcy filing. Jones bragged during his InfoWars broadcasts, which continued throughout the trials, that he would use the bankruptcy filing to cut down his bonds and bog down the payments in appeals in order to continue operating.
“Like every other cowardly move Alex Jones has made, this bankruptcy will not work,” Chris Mattei, one of the attorneys representing the Sandy Hook families, said in a statement provided to Rolling Stone. “The bankruptcy system does not protect anyone who engages in intentional and egregious attacks on others, as Mr. Jones did. The American judicial system will hold Alex Jones accountable, and we will never stop working to enforce the jury’s verdict.”
The filing comes a day after rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, appeared on Jones’ InfoWars broadcast and declared his “love” for Nazis. Ye spent the better part of three hours heaping praise on Nazis and Adolf Hitler, while even making a foray into Holocaust denial. Jones was visibly uncomfortable by the magnitude of his guest’s antisemitism and conspiracy theorizing.
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