A federal judge on Friday ordered the liquidation of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ personal assets but dismissed his company’s separate bankruptcy case, leaving the future of his Infowars media platform uncertain after he was found guilty of false claims. He owes $1.5 billion for the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, which he caused himself.
Judge Christopher Lopez approved Jones’s personal bankruptcy reorganization into liquidation but rejected an attempt by his company, Austin, Texas-based Free Speech Systems, to reorganize. Many of the Sandy Hook families have called for the company to be liquidated as well.
If Free Speech Systems’ bankruptcy reorganization turns into liquidation, Jones could lose ownership of the company, its social media accounts, its Austin-based Infowars studio and all copyrights because the company’s properties have been sold. Jones laughed when the judge dismissed the company’s case.
It’s unclear what will happen to Free Speech Systems, Infowars’ parent company and the multimillion-dollar cash cow Jones has built over the past 25 years.
One possible scenario, according to attorneys involved in the case, is that the company and Infowars are allowed to continue operating while state courts in Texas and Connecticut fight to collect on the $1.5 billion debt, and Jones’ family The two states won their lawsuits against Jones.
Another scenario is for Sandy Hook family attorneys to return to bankruptcy court and ask Lopez to liquidate the company as part of Jones’ personal case because Jones owns the company, attorneys said.
Lopez said his only focus in deciding whether to dismiss Free Speech Systems’ case or order a liquidation was what was best for the company and its creditors, including the Sandy Hook family. Lopez also said Free Speech Systems’ case appears to be one of the longest of its kind in the country and that the deadline to resolve it is approaching.
“I was never asked to make a decision on whether to close the show today. No matter what, that would never have happened today,” Lopez said. “This case is one of the tougher cases I have handled. When you look at that, I think creditors would be better served by pursuing their rights in state court.
Many of Jones’ personal assets will be sold, but his primary residence and some other properties in the Austin area will be spared from bankruptcy liquidation. He has begun selling his Texas ranch, gun collection and other assets worth about $2.8 million to pay off debt.
Before Friday’s hearing, Jones had been telling his online and radio audience that Free Speech Systems was on the verge of closing due to bankruptcy. He urged them to save the videos by downloading them from his online archive, and pointed them to a new website for his father’s company if they wanted to continue buying the dietary supplements he sells on the show.
“The information war may be over soon. If not today, then in the next few weeks or months,” Jones told reporters before Friday’s hearing. “But this is just the beginning of my fight against tyranny.”
Jones has personal assets of about $9 million, according to the latest financial filings in court. Free Speech Systems has 44 employees, about $6 million in cash on hand and inventory worth about $1.2 million, said J. Patrick Magill, the court-appointed restructuring chief who ran the company during the bankruptcy.
Jones and Free Speech Systems filed for bankruptcy protection in 2022. The 2012 school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, killed 20 first-grade students and six educators. Relatives of many of the victims were separated in Connecticut. Dick and Texas won lawsuit verdicts of more than $1.4 billion and $49 million respectively.
Chris Mattei, an attorney for the families in the Connecticut case, said liquidating Free Speech Systems would “enable the Connecticut families to enforce the $1.4 billion judgment now and in the future while also It also takes away Jones’ ability to do massive damage, as he’s been doing for about 25 years.
The relatives said they were traumatized by Jones’ comments and the actions of his followers. They testified of being harassed and threatened by Jones followers, some personally confronting grieving families who 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 his family the income from his show. But the two sides were unable to agree on a final plan, and Jones recently applied for permission to move his personal bankruptcy from reorganization to liquidation.
Families in the Connecticut lawsuit, including relatives of eight children and adults who died, are asking that Free Speech Systems’ bankruptcy case also be moved to liquidation. But the parents in the Texas lawsuit, whose child, 6-year-old Jesse Lewis, has died, want the company’s case dismissed.
Lawyers for the company have filed documents showing it supports liquidation, but attorneys in Jones’ personal bankruptcy case want a judge to dismiss the company’s case.
Kyle Kimpler, an attorney for the family seeking liquidation, told the judge that dismissing the case could lead to a “race to court.” He added that it was possible for one family to receive everything while another family received nothing.
Although Jones has since acknowledged the Sandy Hook shooting, he has said on recent shows that Democrats and the “deep state” were conspiring to shut down his company and deny him his right to free speech. He also said the Sandy Hook family was used as pawns in a conspiracy. Lawyers for the family called this nonsense.
The families have a pending lawsuit in Texas accusing Jones of illegally transferring and hiding millions of dollars. Jones has denied the accusations.
