A federal judge on Friday ordered the liquidation of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ personal assets and is still ruling on a separate bankruptcy case against his company. The decision could determine the future of his Infowars media platform, as Jones is owed $1.5 billion for falsely claiming the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax.
Judge Christopher Lopez approved the transfer of Jones’ proposed personal bankruptcy reorganization to liquidation. He will still rule on whether Jones’ company, Austin, Texas-based Free Speech Systems, should also be liquidated.
It’s unclear what will happen to Infowars’ parent company, Free Speech Systems.
Many of Jones’ personal assets will be sold, but he is expected to retain his primary residence in the Austin area and several other properties that have been spared from bankruptcy. He has begun selling his Texas ranch, gun collection and other assets worth about $2.8 million to help pay off debt.
Jones had no real reaction after the judge issued the order regarding his personal assets.
He has been telling his online and radio audiences that Infowars’ parent company, Free Speech Systems, is on the verge of closing due to bankruptcy. A headline on the Infowars website on Friday read: “Watch live! Will this be the last day of Infowars transmissions?”
“The information war may be over soon. If not today, it will be over in the next few weeks or months,” Jones told reporters before the hearing began. “But this is just the beginning of my fight against tyranny.”
Jones has been urging his followers to download videos from his online archive to save, and he’s also directed them to his father’s company’s new website if they want to continue buying the dietary supplements he sells on the show.
Jones has personal assets of about $9 million, while his company has about $4 million in cash on hand, according to the latest financial filings in court.
Free Speech Systems, based in Jones and Austin, Texas, filed for bankruptcy protection in 2022, many of whom were victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, which killed 20 first-graders and six educators. Relatives of victims have won more than $1.4 billion in lawsuits, with verdicts ranging from $49 million in Connecticut to $49 million in Texas.
Lawyers for the Sandy Hook family have been seeking liquidation.
“Doing so will allow Connecticut families to enforce the $1.4 billion judgment now and in the future, while also denying Jones the ability to cause massive harm, as he has done for approximately 25 years,” Connecticut said Chris Mattei, the Dick family’s attorney.
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 the Free Speech System initially filed for bankruptcy reorganization protection, which would have allowed him to run Infowars while paying families 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 a separate bankruptcy case against Free Speech Systems be moved into liquidation as well. 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 indicating it supports liquidation, but attorneys in Jones’ personal bankruptcy case filed a motion Wednesday saying he does not support the plan and wants a judge to dismiss the company’s case.
If Free Speech Systems’ case is dismissed, the company could be restored to the same position it was in after receiving $1.5 billion in damages from the lawsuit. The effort to collect damages returns to state courts in Texas and Connecticut. This may give Infowars a longer lifeline as collection efforts unfold.
Although Jones later 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 because of his views. He also said the Sandy Hook family was used as pawns in a conspiracy. Lawyers for the family called this nonsense.
Jones personally has about $9 million in assets, including his $2.6 million Austin-area home and other real estate, according to the latest financial statements filed in bankruptcy court. He listed living expenses in April alone at about $69,000, including about $16,500 in household expenses.
Free Speech Systems, which has 44 employees, took in nearly $3.2 million in April, including sales of dietary supplements, apparel and other items that Jones promoted on the show, while listing expenses of $1.9 million.
The families have a pending lawsuit in Texas accusing Jones of illegally transferring and hiding millions of dollars. Jones has denied the accusations.
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