Bankruptcy Judge Christopher M. Lopez at a hearing Tuesday said he would approve a motion by Christopher R. Murray, the Chapter 7 trustee for Jones’ estate, to employ a sales broker and wind down the assets of Infowars parent company Free Speech Systems LLC.
Murray is tasked with with liquidating Jones’ estate to help him pay down approximately $1.5 billion in defamation judgments related to statements he made calling the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting a hoax.
“The Connecticut families have always sought a fair and equitable distribution of Free Speech System’s assets for all of the families, and today’s decision is a significant step forward,” Chris Mattei of Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder PC, representing some of the victims’ families, said in a statement.
“FSS will now be sold at auction, meaning Alex Jones will no longer own or control the company he built. This brings the families closer to their goal of holding him accountable for the harm he has caused,” Mattei said.
Jones and his company both filed for bankruptcy protection in 2022 — the same year Sandy Hook families won nearly $1.5 billion in defamation and emotional distress lawsuits against Jones for his repeatedly calling the 2012 school shooting a hoax staged by “crisis actors” to get more gun control legislation passed. Twenty first graders and six educators were killed in the Newtown, Connecticut shooting.
Texas and Connecticut, parents and children of many of the victims testified that they were traumatized by Jones’ hoax conspiracies and his followers’ actions. They said they were harassed and threatened by Jones’ believers, some of whom confronted the grieving families in person saying the shooting never happened and their children never existed. One parent said someone threatened to dig up his dead son’s grave.
Lawyers, financial experts and others who worked on Jones' bankruptcy cases — who have racked up millions of dollars in fees and expenses — are expected to be paid first.
A remaining legal dispute in the bankruptcy case is whether Free Speech Systems owes more than $50 million to another Jones-owned company, PQPR Holdings Limited. Free Speech Systems buys dietary supplements from PQPR to sell on the Infowars website. PQPR said it wasn't paid for many of the supplements and filed liens. Sandy Hook lawyers allege the debt is bogus.
If the debt is found to be valid, that could reduce any amount the Sandy Hook families ultimately get from the liquidations.
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