Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ Infowars media platform and its assets will be sold off piece by piece in auctions this fall to help pay the more than $1 billion he owes relatives of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, under an order expected to be approved by a federal judge.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez in Houston said during a court hearing Tuesday that he will approve the auctions that start in November. But he said he first must change a previous order to make it clear that the trustee overseeing Jones’ personal bankruptcy case controls all the assets of Infowars parent company Free Speech Systems, which is owned 100% by Jones.

Despite the pending loss of his company, Jones vows to continue his talk shows through other means, possibly including a new website and his personal social media accounts. He also has suggested that Infowars’ assets could be bought by his supporters, allowing him to continue hosting his show as an employee under the Infowars brand in their home city of Austin, Texas.

  • mPony@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Why has this taken THIS LONG to get this far? Anybody else would have been rendered penniless within a year, tops.

    • johannesvanderwhales@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Most people don’t have multimillion dollars in assets with complex ownership schemes. But I also would challenge the assumption that it would ever go quickly. The legal system is very, very slow.

    • aidan@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Anybody else would have been rendered penniless within a year, tops.

      Nobody else has ever been ordered to pay that much, much less in a suit for speech. Wrongful death lawsuits are awarded less than this.