Right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones agreed Thursday to liquidate his personal assets to pay off some of the $1.5 billion in damages he owes to families of Sandy Hook victims for lies he told about the 2012 school massacre, NBC News reported.
In light of the move, Jones will no longer own Infowars, a powerful conspiracy-spewing empire he founded in the 1990s. Jones had used his media company to spread vile conspiracy theories, about everything from 9/11 to school shootings, that made him a very rich man. He had earlier declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
“Converting the case to Chapter 7 will hasten the end of these bankruptcies and facilitate the liquidation of Jones’s assets, which is the same reason we have moved to convert his company’s case to Chapter 7,” Chris Mattei, anattorney representing Sandy Hook families, told CNN.
Unlike Chapter 11 bankruptcy, under Chapter 7 “the bankruptcy trustee gathers and sells the debtor’s nonexempt assets and uses the proceeds of such assets to pay holders of claims,” according to an explainer from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.
Usually bankruptcy can be used to excuse debts and legal judgments. However, the judge overseeing Jones’ case ruled in October that defamation verdicts cannot legally be dispensed since they were the result of Jones’ “willful and malicious injury.”
For years Jones had claimed that the Sandy Hook killings were staged by government actors in a ploy to confiscate Americans’ guns. He has since admitted that the shooting had occurred while nonetheless claiming he is a victim. On Tuesday, Jones complained that the Sandy Hook families were attempting to shut down his broadcasts with “a made-up kangaroo court debt,” NBC reported.
In 2022, Texas and Connecticut courts ordered Jones to pay the families of 20 students and six staff members killed in the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut — but the families have yet to see a penny from Jones, per CNN.
The fate of Jones’ company, Free Speech Systems, will be decided at a bankruptcy hearing scheduled June 14.