Families of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting are urging a federal bankruptcy judge to install a trustee who can “safeguard assets and prevent further value destruction” as conspiracy theorist Alex Jones seeks to liquidate his wealth to pay off a hefty debt he owes them in defamation verdicts.
In a filing ahead of a related court hearing Friday in the Southern District of Texas, the families also accused Jones, the founder of Infowars, of “erratic behavior over the past weeks,” noting comments he has made on his show claiming he has no assets other than the money he can make from selling nutritional supplements. He has specifically told his listeners to continue buying the products from a website affiliated with his father, David Jones, a dentist who is known as “Dr. Jones,” according to the filing.
The families accuse Jones of trying to divert assets from his media company, Free Speech Systems, to support his future business operations, instead.
Jones’ “flagrant and repeated attempts to funnel property of the FSS estate to an unaffiliated entity owned by his father — while using the Infowars brand name and infrastructure to do so — is intentionally value destructive,” the families said.
Families who sued Jones won lawsuits in Connecticut and Texas and were collectively awarded $1.5 billion in damages after they claimed he defamed them and inflicted emotional distress by repeatedly suggesting on his show that the Sandy Hook massacre was a hoax. A gunman killed 20 first grade children and six adults at the school in Newtown, Connecticut, on Dec. 14, 2012.
At his trial in Texas in 2022, Jones generally blamed “corporate media” for twisting his words and misportraying him but didn’t specify how.
Jones had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection that year, a move that lawyers for the plaintiffs criticized as a maneuver to avoid paying the debt. A judge ruled last year that Jones, who had said in court documents that he has about $9 million in personal assets, can’t use bankruptcy to wipe out the legal judgments.
His attorneys wrote in a court filing last week that “there is no reasonable prospect of a successful reorganization” of his debts, so they are seeking permission from a judge to convert his bankruptcy filing into Chapter 7 liquidation.
Sandy Hook families say they support the judge’s approving liquidation for both Jones’ personal assets, as they want to see how he can fulfill his financial obligations to them, and Free Speech Systems, which is also seeking bankruptcy protection. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez of the Southern District of Texas in Houston is expected to hear the case Friday.
A lawyer for the families said last week that Jones’ fulfilling his financial obligations is part of “meaningful accountability” after his decades of incendiary rhetoric.
Jones suggested on his show this week that Infowars will end as his audience knows it in a matter of days.
“I’m going to stay with the ship until it fully sinks,” he said, adding, “At the last moment, I will then step onto the next ship.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
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