Families of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre victims on Thursday claimed conspiracy theorist Alex Jones funneled millions of dollars to enrich himself from his company that has now filed for bankruptcy as the families attempt to seek damages through defamation suits.
The families filed a motion in a federal bankruptcy court in Houston asking the bankruptcy trustee to take control of Free Speech Systems (FSS), the parent company of far-right website Infowars owned by Jones, and appoint a tort claimants’ committee to represent the families and other creditors’ interests in collecting payment.
FSS filed for bankruptcy late last month as families of many of the victims of the shooting, which Jones has falsely claimed was a hoax, proceeded with multiple defamation lawsuits in Connecticut and Texas seeking damages for the false claims.
“So long as FSS possesses its assets and controls its operations, the Sandy Hook Families’ prospects of a full and fair recovery remain in jeopardy,” the motion states.
The motion also included a family member of an individual who Jones falsely identified as the shooter in the Parkland massacre in February 2018. That individual passed away in a house fire in May.
The families’ attorneys said as the lawsuits were ongoing last summer, FSS conducted “fraudulent transfers” to PQPR Holdings Limited, an entity operated directly and indirectly by Jones and his parents.
Seventy-two percent of the transfers ultimately went to Jones, and the rest went to his parents, according to the motion.
“Since the Sandy Hook Families filed their lawsuits, the debtor has systematically transferred millions of dollars to Alex Jones and his relatives and insider entities,” the families’ attorneys wrote in the filing.
The motion also alleges Jones “squeeze[d]” FSS into bankruptcy procedures designed to provide additional protections for small-business debtors days before a Texas jury ordered Jones to pay millions in damages in a defamation case.
The jury in the defamation case, filed by the parents of one of the children killed at Sandy Hook, ordered Jones to pay $45.2 million in punitive damages earlier this month to the parents and a further $4.1 million for the suffering he put them through by his false claims.
The order would have increased debts enough to prevent the company from leveraging the small-business protections, according to the motion.
“FSS’s conduct leading up to and since filing this bankruptcy reveals an out-of-control debtor that is still operated by Jones for the sole benefit of Jones,” the motion states.
The Hill has reached out to Jones’s attorneys for comment.