It’s easy to imagine Alex Jones, the host of the rambling, right-wing hate channel InfoWars, turning as red as an inflamed pimple at the thought of having to pay for his lies. Now he’s likely growing purple holding his breath, trying to avoid paying out for consistently claiming that the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting was a false flag scheme perpetrated by the left, among other insane conspiracies.
Jones filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for three of his companies in Texas court April 17. As fun as this sounds, it’s all just an attempt to avoid paying out for his sputtering, vitriolic online rants. This type of bankruptcy filing, which is also called “reorganization bankruptcy,” allows companies to continue operations in an effort to turn around their business. It’s also used by companies in order to stave off civil litigation, something that’s coming down the pipe for this well-known proprietor of disinformation.
The lawsuit brought by the families of children who were killed by a lone gunman in Newtown, Connecticut was decided against Jones last November. That suit is just the latest civil action brought against Jones in Connecticut and Texas, where InfoWars is based. Parents of the slain children have said they’ve been harassed and even received threats by Jones’ rabid fanbase. They’re currently waiting for August when a judge is supposed to award damages. Despite constantly refusing to attend depositions regarding one of the lawsuits brought forth by parents of children murdered in Sandy Hook, Forbes reports that he was refunded $75k in fines for finally showing up last week.
Sunday’s court filings showed that the InfoWars companies have assets listed in the $0-$50,000 range and liabilities in the $1 to $10 million range.
There’s a good case to be made to show Jones’ businesses are worth a pretty penny. The Huffington Post reported that the InfoWars store made $165 million over three years. Many of those segments where he spouted falsities about the Connecticut shooting also helped him bank hundreds of thousands in store sales.
There’s a strong suspicion Jones is worth quite a bit. The New York Times has previously reported that Jones had reported in divorce proceedings earnings of over $5 million from his businesses in 2014. Selling supplements is apparently a nice money maker, as those proceedings also showed he bought four Rolex watches and a $40,000 aquarium in one day.
Jones has lost several lawsuits brought against him for his routine disinformation campaigns. In the latest lawsuit to go through, the relatives of the Sandy Hook victims rejected a settlement offer of $120,000 and Jones’ “heartfelt apologies” for each of the 13 plaintiffs. Those heartfelt apologies would probably come in the form of a bottle of supplements, with each plastic pill marked like a candy heart with the words “sorry for claiming your kid wasn’t actually murdered.”