Posted on 06/09/2024 3:10:23 AM PDT by RandFan
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has moved to liquidate his personal assets in order to pay the $1.5 billion he owes the families of Sandy Hook massacre victims, who say they were harassed by Jones’ followers who believed his lies that the 2012 school shooting was a hoax.
Jones asked a judge to convert his bankruptcy to a Chapter 7 liquidation, relinquishing his desperate effort to save InfoWars, the conspiracy platform from which he regularly spewed baseless claims. Last weekend, he blubbered on air that he was being “targeted for abuse” by “deep state” actors who wanted to shut down his show, and he begged listeners to buy his dietary supplements to support him. The next day, the Sandy Hook families asked the Texas judge overseeing his bankruptcy case to liquidate his assets, including InfoWars and Free Speech Systems.
Jones’ attorneys affirmed in a Thursday court filing that “there is no reasonable prospect of a successful reorganization” of his debts.
Avi Moshenberg, a lawyer representing the Sandy Hook families, told CNN that the liquidation move ultimately “means [Jones’] ownership in Free Speech Systems is going to get sold,” ending Jones’ hold over a conspiracy theory empire he’s held for decades.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
1) consider the (biased) source
2) Any Freeper bankruptcy / Chapter 7 experts is this legal or unusual considering the ridiculous judgement?
This is surely a form of lawfare as it costs significant amounts to fight back and "appeal" especially a stupid billion dollar+ judgement.
His claim that Sandy Hook was fake and conducted by crisis actors was beyond stupid. And what is ironic, is that there were individuals here who believed him.
Amendment 8: Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
By ANY standard, $1.5 BILLION is excessive, even by someone with the status that Alex Jones holds. Why anyone hasn’t appealed to the Supremes on 8th amendment grounds is beyond me.
Not like he shouted Fire in a crowded theater.
If anything, it seems as if he was conducting himself as a video version of The National Enquirer.
If the Deep State didn’t know a specially protected class of people could arise out of a mass shooting event (Alex Jones surely did not know this), it damn sure knows it now.
I’m not a lawyer nor do I play at being one but I read an interesting take on this situation to wit: whatever AJ’s financial worth is, it is probably nowhere near 1.5 billion. Let us say just for this example that AJ is worth 600mm. By liquidating his ‘empire’ the Sandy Hookers get 600mm and AJ’s debt is declared settled. He no longer owes the SHF group anything. Of course the leftys are against this because it leaves 900mm on the table and does not preclude AJ from starting over.
So the SandyHookers must decide if they want the settlement to continue to be paid off a little at a time for a couple of decades or take the cash now.
Paging J. G. Wentworth ...
gaslight
Two parts to this issue.
The original judgement could be argued was illegal and unjust, after that the Bankruptcy Cases are not, and have followed the law as much as I know about it.
The one thing to understand is that Alex Jones didn’t agree to sell InfoWars or anything else, once he filed bankruptcy and the case converted from Chapter 11 to 7, a Bankruptcy Trustee was appointed, all the assets then came under the control of the Trustee and Alex Jones has no say on how or when or how much they are sold for.
The job of the Trustee is to represent the interests of the creditors, the best thing Alex Jones could do now is work with the Trustee to get the assets turned over and sold off, which would get the case closed faster, allowing him to move on and start over quickly.
As harsh as that sounds, consider Alex Jones owes over 1.5 billion dollars, then ask yourself how much InfoWars is worth minus Alex Jones, probably not very much.
Once all the assets are sold, the Trustee will pay the creditors on a prorated basis, meaning Alex Jones can settle all his debts for pennies on the dollar, which would make him debt free and able to move forward with a new show.
Seems a tad excessive
Without the constant plugging / advertising it would be worth zilch
Do they need to determine a figure?
Yes. This seems to be the only path forward.
Alex Jones originally filed a Chapter 11 Bankruptcy which requires a plan to be worked out between Alex Jones and his creditors for repayment of the debts.
When negotiations between Alex Jones and his creditors failed, the creditors then requested a liquidation of the assets, which then converted the case to Chapter 7 and a Trustee getting appointed.
After Bankruptcy Alex Jones won’t be left penniless. Each state has Bankruptcy Exemptions, here the exemptions in Texas where the cases are filed.
https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/texas-bankruptcy-exemptions.html
Based on how Alex Jones has structured his assets he could be left with a decent income and assets.
Bankruptcy is not the end; it wipes out debts and allows a person to move on and start over debt free.
What usually happens is the Trustee will hire an auctioneer and sell all the assets at auction, things like real estate, personal property, and other tangible items will be sold at auction.
I doubt anyone would purchase the InfoWars name, if Alex Jones owned valuable production equipment, physical studios cameras, etc. where Infowars was produced that could worth some money.
Other things like accounts receivable, will be sold off as well usually for pennies on the dollar, the goal of the Trustee is to get the case resolved so everyone can move on.
Yes, but did it cause 1.5 billion in damages? No one was physically or financially damaged by his weird opinion. I doubt any of them even were subscribed to infowars. I’m not. This is being penalized for advocating a weird opinion.
The value figure for “Infowars”/”Free Speech Systems/”Prison Planet” was about $358K/year per BK court docs:
https://archive.org/details/gov.uscourts.txsb.457549/gov.uscourts.txsb.457549.89.0.pdf
Alex J. is requesting the switch fom BK Chapter 11 to BK Chapter 7...his business was not producing enough revenue for a successful “reorganization” with payments to the creditors, so now liquidation.
That’s the one thing that everybody is missing. Alex Jones is not destroyed. He can get a fresh start.
Even if his debts followed him, it’s only temporary.
He can kiss goodbye to the brand then but who wants to buy it?
Someone will as you say if at auction but it wont be significant.
Maybe this is what hurts him more than anything having spent 25 years building it.
That’s exactly right, IMO, once Alex Jones gets over mental part of what’s happening, he’ll realize he’s got a fresh start and build something new and better.
Nobody on this site believed sandy hook was done by crisis actors. Furthermore the fact that you think that makes you the real kook.
And hopefully smarter. :)
You can go back over 20 years and lay out all the 10,000 crazy things that he said, and 50-percent are utterly false. The rest are either partially or fully-true. That was the problem...you couldn’t really get a clear handle over the dividing line.
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