Alex Jones files for bankruptcy as damages owed to Sandy Hook families total nearly $1.5B: report

Infowars host Alex Jones filed for bankruptcy on Friday, after a series of defamation trials resulted in Jones owing nearly $1.5 billion to the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting, The Washington Post reported.

Jones reportedly listed his assets at between $1 million and $10 million and his debts at between $1 billion and $10 billion, according to the Post.

A Connecticut jury in October ordered Jones to pay $965 million in compensatory damages to 15 relatives of the victims of the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. In November, a Connecticut judge added $473 million in attorneys’ fees to the total as punitive damages.

The families sued Jones for spreading the unfounded conspiracy theory that the shooting — which left 26 people, including 20 young children, dead — was a hoax staged by the U.S. government.

Last week, a Texas judge denied Jones’ request to decrease the $50 million in damages that he was ordered to pay to the family of another Sandy Hook victim.

Jones’s company, Free Speech Systems, also filed for bankruptcy earlier this year. However, the families of the Sandy Hook victims have accused Jones of using bankruptcy to avoid paying the massive sum of damages.

Updated at 10:36 a.m.