Summary
A company tied to Alex Jones, First United American Companies, is challenging The Onion’s winning bid to acquire Infowars in bankruptcy court, alleging fraud and collusion with the Sandy Hook families and the auction trustee.
The Onion’s $1.75M bid included incentives benefiting other creditors, which the trustee deemed superior to the $3.5M cash bid from the Jones-affiliated company.
The trustee rejected the allegations as baseless, describing the motion as an attempt to interfere with the auction process, while The Onion intends to transform Infowars into a parody site.
A hearing has been ordered to review the auction process.
Alex Jones used Infowars to disseminate lies about the parents of murdered children. Those lies were so egregious that a court found Alex Jones owed those victims a lot of money. Alex Jones claims he cannot afford to pay his debts, so he has declared bankruptcy. His plan is to sell Infowars, the vehicle of his disinformation, and use the proceeds to pay a fraction of his debts.
An affiliated company wants to buy Infowars so that they can hire Alex Jones to continue to spread disinformation. They are trying to dodge payments and minimize the amount owed while retaining possession of the valuable assets.
To be clear, Infowars does not belong to Alex Jones anymore. He has no say in how his assets are liquidated or distributed. Buying back your liquidated assets through an intermediary is a type of fraud that has existed as long as bankruptcy.