Do these people really think they’re getting their money?

 

www.theguardian.com

Alex Jones outside court in Austin last year. Lawyers representing the families say they may seek a court order to rein in his spending. Photograph: Reuters

Alex Jones lives it up but refuses to pay $1.5bn debt to Sandy Hook families

Richard Luscombe

3 minutes

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The rightwing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is continuing to live the high life while refusing to pay a cent of the $1.5bn damages he owes families of victims of the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting he called a hoax.

Court documents show that the disgraced host of the far-right conspiracy theory and hoax news website Infowars is spending tens of thousands of dollars a month on “expenses” including high-end restaurants and groceries, while payments to the families are frozen following his declaration of bankruptcy last year.

Lawyers representing the families say they may seek a court order against Jones, 49, to rein in his spending and compel the commencement of payments to their clients.

According to court papers dated 29 August, reported by CNN, Jones spent $93,180 in July, excluding legal fees, but including more than $15,000 to the first of his two ex-wives, $7,900 for “housekeeping”, $6,338 on entertainment and meals, and $3,388 on groceries.

In the previous two months, the amounts were $85,114 and $63,925.

✓ Jones was accused in March of transferring large chunks of his assets, estimated at up to $10m, to friends and family members to put it beyond the reach of his creditors. The reported payments to his former wife Erika Wulff, the lawyers say, are further evidence of “fraudulent transfers”.

If Jones does not curb his spending, CNN further reported, the attorneys will seek the appointment of a trustee to prevent “further waste” of his estate assets, or ask a judge to dismiss the bankruptcy case so the families can be paid.

Free Speech Systems, Infowars’ parent company, declared bankruptcy in July last year, and Jones declared personal bankruptcy in November.

✓ Jones continues to try to raise money on his Infowars show, telling listeners this week that he was “in the hole” for about $1m in legal fees and might not be able to continue his show if donations were not forthcoming.

He also defended his spending. “I like to go to nice restaurants, that is my deal, I like to go on a couple of nice vacations a year. But I think I’ve pretty much earned that in this fight,” he said.

✓ Previously, Jones has insisted he would not be silenced by the judgment, awarded for his lies that the December 2012 shooting that killed 26 at the school in Newtown, Connecticut, never happened, and that victims’ families were “crisis actors”.

In an Infowars segment last October, he called the amount he was ordered to pay “hilarious” and said: “Do these people really think they’re getting their money?”