Alex Jones' InfoWars Files for Bankruptcy
The conspiracy theorist is facing multiple defamation lawsuits and more than $1 million in fees over false claims the Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax.
Alex Jones filed for bankruptcy for his InfoWars company.
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has filed for bankruptcy for his far-right website InfoWars.
InfoWars and Jones are facing multiple lawsuits from the families of the victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting, which Jones falsely claimed was a hoax. The filing comes after families in a Connecticut case last month rejected Jones' offer to settle the defamation suit.
Jones filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas on Sunday, according to Reuters. In addition to InfoWars, two additional companies connected with Jones, IWHealth and Prison Planet TV, also filed for bankruptcy. Jones confirmed the news on his online show Monday.
"We've been investigating different types of bankruptcy because I told you we're maxed out and I don't want to lay off our employees," Jones said.
The victims' families began filing lawsuits against Jones in 2018, around the same time his YouTube channel with its more than 2 million subscribers was banned. One Connecticut court already ruling in favor of the family last October as did a Texas judge in two other lawsuits. Travis County District Court Judge Maya Guerra Gamble, who is overseeing the two suits, ordered Jones to pay $1 million in legal fees to the family. The judge also delayed the first jury trial Wednesday that would determine how much will be rewarded to the family due to Jones' bankruptcy filing.
Earlier in the month, a lawsuit filed by one of the families accused Jones of hiding assets by drawing $18 million from his company's accounts starting in 2018 when he began dealing with legal suits. It also accused Jones of claiming his company owed $54 million in debt to another company, which the lawsuit alleges is owned "directly or indirectly" by Jones.