Infowars host, Alex Jones, has declared himself bankrupt in the face of the almost $1.5 billion he owes families of the Sandy Hook school massacre. The show host filed for personal bankruptcy in Texas on Friday, declaring that his liabilities are between $1-$10 billion while his assets are between $1-$10 million, New York Times reports.
“I’m officially out of money, personally,” he said on his Infowars broadcast. “It’s all going to be filed. It’s all going to be public. And you will see that Alex Jones has almost no cash.”
Following his denial of the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre for almost a decade, a jury in Texas awarded $49 million against Jones for the death of a child in the massacre. A jury in Connecticut awarded $965 million against him for some affected families, and a judge later slammed him with another $473 million in punitive damages.
Although the bankruptcy filing will halt all legal proceedings against the TV host, it might also trigger deeper scrutiny of the finances of his business empires. An attorney for families that lost children in the school massacre, Chris Mattei, said the bankruptcy filing will not stop Jones from paying the compensation.
“Like every other cowardly move Alex Jones has made, this bankruptcy will not work,” Mattei said in a statement. “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.”
In total, 20 school children and six adults were killed when a shooter invaded the school in 2012. Many of the families of slain victims said many fans who watch Alex Jones’ show and believe him threatened them for insisting they lost loved ones. Some family members said they were threatened with rape, some said they got threats to have the coffins of their loved ones dug up, and some said they were threatened with death and torture.
Although Jones claimed that he has less than $2 million and is incapable of paying the huge awards the courts imposed on him, a forensic economist in Texas said the Infowars host and his company Free Speech Systems are worth up to $270 million. Meanwhile, Free Speech Systems in July filed for bankruptcy in Texas. The company said Jones is paid $20,000 as a salary every two weeks.
But families of the Sandy Hook school massacre claimed that Jones began last year to siphon money out of his companies and eCommerce business to offshore accounts and into other businesses to cover up his true worth. They alleged that the TV host has siphoned up to $68 million before fraudulently claiming that he is bankrupt.