Alex Jones files for Free Language System bankruptcy in Sandy Hook trial
AUSTIN, Texas – Free Speech Systems, the main company owned by Austin-based conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, filed for bankruptcy – but an attorney for Jones said the expected action would not affect an ongoing trial in Austin in a lawsuit by the parents of a child killed in the 2012 attack on Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Jones’ free speech system InfoWars . media systemlisted assets of $14.3 million, including nearly $1.16 million in cash and nearly $1.6 million in property and equipment, as of May 31.
But the Austin corporation’s bankruptcy filing also lists $79 million in liabilities, including a $54 million debt owed to PQPR Holdings.
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A separate lawsuit filed by the 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 questionable, saying that PQPR was a Nevada-registered company owned “directly or indirectly by Jones, his parents, and his children through a alphabet soup of shell entities.” That case is still in the early stages.
Jones is in the midst of a two-week trial in Austin to determine how much he must pay the parents of Jesse Lewis, 6, one of 20 children and six educators killed in a mass shooting in New York. Newtown, Conneticut, classroom at school.
Jones was found to have defamed and knowingly caused emotional distress to his parents, Scarlett Lewis and Neil Heslin, by labeling the shooting school a hoax and the parents as a liar or a conspirator government in a plot to suppress gun rights.
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The parents have requested $150 million, with the possibility of additional punitive damages that jurors will be asked to assess following Jones and Free Speech Systems net worth testimony at the end of the session. court.
Andino Reynal, Jones’ attorney, released the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing after jurors left on Friday, saying the bankruptcy attorneys “assured me that they wouldn’t interfere with the proceedings.” our trial.”
A hearing has been set for 8:30 a.m. Monday in a federal bankruptcy court in Houston to consider Free Speech Systems’ emergency request for the removal of the automatic stay that would otherwise stop the Austin trial.
Reynal told state Judge Maya Guerra Gamble the idea behind the bankruptcy was to have the damages award money from the Austin trial to submit to bankruptcy court.
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Jones faces two other Sandy Hook trials to determine the award of damages – one in Austin for the parents of 6-year-old Noah Pozner, and one for eight Connecticut families. Both trials have been set for September, with jury selection set to begin Wednesday in the Connecticut case.
Bankruptcy can delay both proceedings.
According to Friday’s bankruptcyFree Speech Systems made $13 million in gross profit on nearly $65 million in earnings in 2012. For the first five months of 2022, total profits were nearly $9.4 million on $14.3 million. income.
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Latest profile not related to bankruptcy protection Jones sought in April for three other companies, including InfoW, formerly known as InfoWars. That filing comes days before jury selection begins in the Heslin-Lewis case, which was forced to adjourn.
The parents’ attorneys subsequently removed InfoW from their case – the other two companies have not been sued – and the case was returned to Guerra Gamble for jury selection last Monday and session Court begins on Tuesday.
The trial will resume at 9 a.m. Monday.
“Alex Jones’ latest bankruptcy stunt won’t stop the Sandy Hook family from bringing him to justice,” said Avi Moshenberg, an attorney for families who sued in Texas.