The judge’s order to liquidate Infowars presenter Alex Jones’ personal assets made it possible for the relatives of the Sandy Hook mass shooting victims to potentially receive compensation. Nevertheless, US Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez denied a liquidation of Mr. Jones’s Infowars-owning corporation, Free Speech Systems.
Alex Jones’ personal assets to be sold:
Due to Mr. Jones’s misleading remarks about the attack, relatives of the victims have obtained a total of $1.5 billion (£1.2 billion) in defamation judgments against him and his corporation. The assets of Mr. Jones, including a multimillion-dollar ranch, other properties, automobiles, boats, and firearms, will have to be sold as part of the liquidation. Recent court documents indicate that Mr. Jones has around $8.6 million in personal assets. Free Speech Systems and Infowars will remain operational for the time being as a result of the ruling in Houston, Texas, on Friday. Free Speech Systems is a 44-person company that generated almost $3.2 million in revenue in a single month, primarily from the sale of dietary supplements and other products, according to court documents.
The victims’ families couldn’t agree on whether the business bankruptcy should be dismissed or if it should be converted to a liquidation process. Free Speech Systems’ culpability is not eliminated by the ruling, and the plaintiffs in the defamation cases will still be entitled to seek their damages in state courts or in subsequent bankruptcy hearings. Judge Lopez stated, “There’s no easy or right answer here,” occasionally seeming quite moved as he made his ruling. “I believe it would be better for creditors to pursue their rights in state court.”
According to one of the families’ lawyers, they will pursue damages swiftly. Christopher Mattei said in a statement on Friday, “The court authorized us to move immediately to collect against all Infowars assets, and we intend to do exactly that.” “Alex Jones is not a victim or a martyr.
After Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut was attacked in December 2012, Mr. Jones and his guests on his broadcasts frequently questioned whether the massacre had really happened, circulating theories about whether the killings were staged or carried out by government operatives. The attack claimed the lives of six school employees and twenty small children. Mr. Jones once referred to the attack as “a gigantic hoax,” and in 2015 he stated: “I think the performers on Sandy Hook are produced. It’s a synthetic, whole phony. Although I was aware that they were obviously using actors, I still believed that some actual children had been killed. This simply goes to show how audacious they are.”