Alex Jones faces long odds hiding assets following the one billion dollars Sandy Hook verdict, experts suggest.
Right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has vowed to fight a $1 billion defamation lawsuit against him, yet experts suggest neither bankruptcy nor appeal of the Connecticut jury’s decision on Wednesday will help his personal fortune or media empire.
The jury of Waterbury, Connecticut, state court ruled that Jones along with the parent corporation that runs his Infowars website to pay $965 million to the families of the 20 kids and six employees who were killed by the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012 after they claimed to be actors who staged the incident as part of a government-sponsored plot.
The verdict could increase significantly after a judge determines what amount of punitive damages later in the month. The decision comes three months after the time a Texas jury handed the two Sandy Hook parents $49.3 million in the same case.
Jones has stated that he plans to contest the verdict in appeal and make use of the recent bankruptcy of his business, Free Speech Systems LLC to avoid paying. It’s not clear whether he or his businesses are able to ever make the payments in full, but the attorneys representing the plaintiffs have pledged to keep him from shielding all of his wealth.
“We’re confident we will recover as much of the verdict as we can in the near-term, and in the long-term, this verdict isn’t going anywhere,” Chris Mattei is an attorney for the plaintiffs, told.
Infowars’ finances aren’t publicly available, however, according to testimony in court, the website earned a profit at least $165 million between the years 2016 between 2016 and 2018. An expert in the Texas trial concluded that Jones is worth anywhere between $135 million to $270 million.
Free Speech Systems filed for bankruptcy in July. In July, the Sandy Hook families have intervened in the matter and have accused Jones of stealing as much as $62 million out of Free Speech Systems while burdening it with $54 million of “concocted” debt owed to another company controlled by Jones and his parents.
The bankruptcy courts have a wide range of discretion to determine which creditors are first paid and are alert in instances where companies try to swindle funds through debt that is held by shell companies, UConn School of Law professor Minor Myers said.
“No bankruptcy judge would allow Alex Jones and his dad to stand in line in front of the plaintiffs,” Myers claimed.
‘EGREGIOUS’ CONDUCT
Plaintiffs who are awarded judgments against banks typically only get a fraction of what they owe as well as the other creditor whose obligations have been ranked as priority by the court.
In the case of judgments that involve intentional harm however, courts usually rule that plaintiffs are entitled to continue to seek payment even after the bankruptcy is over by pursuing the amount of their wages as well as other assets, experts advise.
Jones’ “underlying conduct was egregious, and that’s the kind of thing that could get you beyond the limits of a bankruptcy,” Brian Kabateck, an attorney who was not involved in the trial was quoted by Reuters.
In the near future, Jones is unlikely to win if he petitions an appeals court or judge to modify the sentence on the grounds that it’s too high as per a variety of Connecticut lawyers.
In contrast to other States, Connecticut doesn’t have a cap on damages for compensatory damages. Judges do not often challenge verdicts of juries because the legal requirement for doing so is very high lawyer Mike D’Amico said.
The verdict is shocking the verdict also contains more than 12 plaintiffs who claim they were subjected to years of harassment, threats to kill and threats of violence by Jones the Jones’ followers.
D’Amico claimed that a verdict worth billions of dollars is justifiable given the tragic facts of the case and the the egregious nature Jones his conduct.
“This was a tragedy unspeakable in terms of its impact and involves conduct that is just so abhorrent,” D’Amico told reporters. “This is the kind of award you would expect.”
Jones could have damaged his chances of success by repeatedly breaking court orders, asserting that the trial was a fraud and then unleashing a tirade towards “liberals” during his testimony. Syracuse University College of Law Professor Roy Gutterman said that Jones’ “contempt for the system” could affect any appeal.
“It’s going to be a big ask for the defendant to come back to the court and say, ‘Will you now please reduce this to something a little more reasonable?” Gutterman stated.
