free speech

Infowars host files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
nfoWars founder Alex Jones speaks to the media outside Waterbury Superior Court during his trial on September 21, 2022 in Waterbury, Connecticut.

InfoWars founder Alex Jones speaks in Waterbury, Conn. Photo: Joe Buglewicz/Getty Images

Alex Jones filed for personal bankruptcy in Texas on Friday, according to a court filing.

Why it matters: The Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing comes after Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems, were ordered to pay almost $1.5 billion in damages for falsely claiming the Sandy Hook mass shooting was a hoax.

Driving the news: The bankruptcy filing said Jones owns between $1 million and $10 million of assets with $1 billion to $10 billion of liabilities.

  • Jones’ affiliate business Free Speech Systems is also mentioned in the lawsuit, having filed for bankruptcy in July.

What they’re saying: “Like every other cowardly move Alex Jones has made, this bankruptcy will not work,” said Chris Mattei, the attorney representing the Sandy Hook families, in a statement to Axios.

  • “The bankruptcy system does not protect anyone who engages in intentional and egregious attacks on others, as Mr. Jones did. The American judicial system will hold Alex Jones accountable, and we will never stop working to enforce the jury’s verdict.”

Zoom out: A Connecticut jury ordered Jones to pay $965 million in damages to Sandy Hook victims in a defamation

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December 7, 2022 by ATTORNEY

Infowars host Alex Jones files for personal bankruptcy

FILE - Infowars founder Alex Jones appears in court to testify during the Sandy Hook defamation damages trial at Connecticut Superior Court in Waterbury, Conn., Thursday, Sept. 22, 2022. Jones has filed for personal <a href=bankruptcy protection in Texas as he faces nearly $1.5 billion in court judgments over conspiracy theories he spread about the Sandy Hook school massacre. Jones filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in bankruptcy court in Houston on Friday, Dec. 2. (Tyler Sizemore/Hearst Connecticut Media via AP, Pool, File)” title=”FILE – Infowars founder Alex Jones appears in court to testify during the Sandy Hook defamation damages trial at Connecticut Superior Court in Waterbury, Conn., Thursday, Sept. 22, 2022. Jones has filed for personal bankruptcy protection in Texas as he faces nearly $1.5 billion in court judgments over conspiracy theories he spread about the Sandy Hook school massacre. Jones filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in bankruptcy court in Houston on Friday, Dec. 2. (Tyler Sizemore/Hearst Connecticut Media via AP, Pool, File)” loading=”lazy”/

FILE – Infowars founder Alex Jones appears in court to testify during the Sandy Hook defamation damages trial at Connecticut Superior Court in Waterbury, Conn., Thursday, Sept. 22, 2022. Jones has filed for personal bankruptcy protection in Texas as he faces nearly $1.5 billion in court judgments over conspiracy theories he spread about the Sandy Hook school massacre. Jones filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in bankruptcy court in

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December 6, 2022 by ATTORNEY

Infowars lawyer, manager barred from bankruptcy case over conflicts

Alex Jones attempts to answer questions about his emails asked by Mark Bankston, lawyer for Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, during trial at the Travis County Courthouse, Austin, Texas, U.S., August 3, 2022. Briana Sanchez/Pool via REUTERS

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(Reuters) – A U.S. bankruptcy judge on Tuesday blocked a restructuring executive and an attorney from working for Infowars’ bankrupt parent company over a conflict of interest, potentially throwing the bankruptcy case and the company’s daily operations into disarray.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez in Houston found that Marc Schwartz, chief restructuring officer of Infowars parent Free Speech Systems LLC, and attorney Kyung Lee failed to disclose that they sought work from Free Speech Systems before the conclusion of earlier Infowars bankruptcies.

The judge raised the conflicts issue because he presided over the earlier Infowars bankruptcies and was concerned about the apparent overlap of work. The judge said the two men showed a “lack of candor” regarding the overlap and other matters. The judge also said the problem was compounded by Schwartz’s tendency to defer to Alex Jones and his other companies instead of advocating on behalf of FSS alone.

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September 26, 2022 by ATTORNEY

Alex Jones using bankruptcy to avoid payouts, Sandy Hook families allege

Sandy Hook families have asked a federal judge to remove InfoWars founder Alex Jones from control of his main company, alleging that Jones has siphoned off millions of dollars and is abusing the bankruptcy system to avoid paying court judgments for portraying the 2012 school shooting as a hoax.

Jones placed Free Speech Systems into bankruptcy in late July while he was in the middle of an Austin trial that ended with jurors awarding almost $50 million to the parents of 6-year-old Jesse Lewis, one of 20 children and six educators killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

Sued by other Sandy Hook families, Jones and Free Speech Systems are facing a similar trial this month in Connecticut and another trial later this year in Austin.

With potentially large jury awards looming, bankruptcy proceedings for Free Speech Systems — which reported $9.4 million in profits on $14.3 million in income in the first five months of this year — could determine how much money the Sandy Hook families receive, as well as the continued viability of Jones’ Austin-based InfoWars media system.

Lawyers for the Sandy Hook parents recently told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez that they don’t trust

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September 6, 2022 by ATTORNEY

Alex Jones company files for bankruptcy; Sandy Hook defamation trial expected to continue

AUSTIN, Texas – Free Speech Systems, the main company owned by Austin-based conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, has filed for bankruptcy – but a Jones lawyer said the action is not expected to affect a trial underway in Austin in a lawsuit by the parents of a child killed in the 2012 attack on Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Free Speech Systems, which operates Jones’ InfoWars media system, listed $14.3 million in assets, including almost $1.16 million in cash and almost $1.6 million in property and equipment, as of May 31.

But the Austin corporation’s bankruptcy filing also listed $79 million in liabilities, including a $54 million debt owed to PQPR Holdings.

Video: Sandy Hook conspiracist Alex Jones could owe $150 million in defamation case 

A separate lawsuit filed by two Sandy Hook families earlier this year in state court accused Jones of systematically hiding millions of dollars in assets and called the $54 million debt dubious, saying PQPR is a Nevada-registered company that is owned “directly or indirectly by Jones, his parents and his children through an alphabet soup of shell entities.” That lawsuit is still in the early stages.

Alex Jones walks into the courtroom in front of Scarlett Lewis and Neil Heslin, the parents of 6-year-old Sandy Hook shooting victim Jesse Lewis, at the Travis County Courthouse Wednesday, July 27, 2022.

Alex Jones walks into the courtroom in front of Scarlett

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August 11, 2022 by ATTORNEY
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