(Houston) A U.S. judge on Friday approved the liquidation of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ personal assets to repay the nearly $1.5 billion in compensation he owes to the families of school shooting victims, officials said. reported American media.
The owner of the Infowars site claimed that a 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook School in Connecticut was just a staged incident. In reality, 20 children and 6 adults were killed.
The conspirator declared personal bankruptcy in 2022 and estimated his assets between one and ten million dollars.
He also filed for bankruptcy at his company, Free Speech Systems, based in Texas.
The judge on Friday allowed Mr Jones to convert his personal bankruptcy into an outright liquidation, but has yet to rule on whether his company should also be liquidated, US media reported.
The move means that many of Mr. Jones’ personal assets — including a Texas ranch worth about $2.8 million — will be sold to help pay debts, but some assets, such as his home in Austin, Texas area also are exempt from liquidation.
On his site, Alex Jones warned his supporters of the situation. On Friday, one headline said: “This could be Infowars’ LAST SHOW! Do NOT miss it.”
Admitting that this is probably “the end” of Infowars, he nevertheless declared that “it was the beginning of (his) fight against tyranny”.
Alex Jones amassed a fortune by linking his conspiracy website to the sale of dietary supplements and other merchandise.
He notably sold dietary supplements for men as well as testosterone boosters, while declaring that the government was making men more and more feminine or homosexual thanks to chemical pollutants.
He also accused the government of deliberately putting fluoride in drinking water, even though his store sold fluoride-free toothpaste.
A lucrative vein that could push content creators to continue spreading untruths, disinformation experts believe.
This illustrates the challenge of combatting this fake news, which is shared more quickly and generates more engagement – and more revenue – than verified information.
In the United States, citizens and pro-democracy groups are increasingly using defamation complaints to hold conspiracy theorists to account.
The families of the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting did not immediately respond to the announcement. They claimed to have been harassed and threatened for several years by supporters of Alex Jones. Some even reported being threatened with rape or death.
