Alex Jones Spent $93K in July, Has Paid Sandy Hook Families $0

Infowars founder has filed for bankruptcy, seeking to dodge $1.5B settlement
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Sep 15, 2023 8:41 AM CDT
Alex Jones Spent $93K in July. Sandy Hook Families Saw $0
Alex Jones, second right, arrives at the Travis County Courthouse in Austin, Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2022. Lawyers for several Sandy Hook families are criticizing Alex Jones' personal spending as they seek nearly $1.5 billion they won in lawsuits against the Infowars host.   (Briana Sanchez/Austin American-Statesman via AP, File)

As Alex Jones continues telling his Infowars audience about his money problems and pleads for them to buy his products, his own documents show life isn't that bad—his net worth is around $14 million and his personal spending topped $93,000 in July alone, reports the AP. That includes thousands of dollars on meals and entertainment. The conspiracy theorist and his lawyers file monthly financial reports in his personal bankruptcy case, and the latest one has struck a nerve with families of Sandy Hook Elementary shooting victims. They're still seeking the $1.5 billion they won last year in lawsuits against Jones for repeatedly calling the 2012 massacre a hoax. "It is disturbing that Alex Jones continues ... his extravagant lifestyle when that money rightfully belongs to the families he spent years tormenting," said Christopher Mattei, a lawyer for the families.

In an Aug. 29 court filing, lawyers for the families said that if Jones doesn't reduce his personal expenses to a "reasonable" level, they will ask the bankruptcy judge to bar him from "further waste of estate assets," appoint a trustee to oversee his spending, or dismiss the bankruptcy case. On his Infowars show Tuesday, Jones said he's not doing anything wrong. "If anything, 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 pretty much have earned that in this fight," he said, urging his audience to donate money for his legal expenses. Jones' spending in July, which was up from nearly $75,000 in April, included his monthly $15,000 payment to his wife, Erika Wulff Jones—payouts called "fraudulent transfers" by lawyers for the Sandy Hook families. Jones says they're required under a prenuptial agreement.

Also in July, Jones spent $7,900 on housekeeping and more than $6,300 for meals and entertainment, not including groceries, which totaled nearly $3,400—or roughly $850 per week. A second home, his Texas lake house, cost him nearly $6,700, including maintenance and property taxes, while his vehicles and boats sapped another $5,600, including insurance, maintenance, and fuel. Sandy Hook families won the nearly $1.5 billion judgment against Jones last year in lawsuits over repeated promotion of a false theory that the school shooting that killed 20 first-graders and six educators never happened. Collecting the sum, though, is proving to be a long battle. When Jones filed for bankruptcy, it put a hold on the families' efforts to collect as a federal bankruptcy court judge decides how much money Jones can actually pay his creditors.

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Lawyers for the families have said in court that it has been difficult for them to track Jones' finances because of the numerous companies he owns and multiple deals among those corporate entities. Meanwhile, Jones is still broadcasting. He and his media company, Free Speech Systems, are seeking court approval for a new contract that would pay him $1.5 million a year plus incentive bonuses, up from his current $520,000-a-year salary. The company also filed for bankruptcy protection last year. On Infowars, Jones said Tuesday that he is more than $1 million in debt. If he gets the salary increase, he said, he would be left with about $300,000 a year after paying his legal bills. "With all my expenses and things, that's nothing," he said. "And I don't care about that. I'm wearing a shirt I bought, like, eight years ago, and I love it to death."

(More Alex Jones stories.)

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