HOUSTON (NEWSnet/AP) — Right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones may be on the brink of losing the Infowars media platform that he turned into a multimillion-dollar moneymaker over the past 25 years.
The reason is a bankruptcy judge is set to rule on whether to liquidate his assets to help pay the $1.5 billion he owes for his repeated and false claims that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax.
A hearing is scheduled for Friday morning in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston.
Jones has been telling his web viewers and radio listeners that Infowars' parent company, Free Speech Systems, is on the verge of being shut down because of the bankruptcy.
He's been urging fans to download videos from his online archive to preserve them and pointing them to a new website of his father's company if they want to continue buying the dietary supplements he sells on his show.
“I think it’s very accurate to say Infowars is a sinking ship,” Jones said on his show Wednesday, later adding that it could be a matter of hours or days when he loses the company.
“Infowars will live on through all the great work we’ve done, all the reports we’ve filed, through you saving them and you sharing them, and of course I will come back stronger than ever," he said. “But I’m going to stay with the ship until it fully sinks. ... At the last moment, I will then step onto the next ship.”
A liquidation would mean Jones' assets would be sold off.
It could also mean Jones loses ownership of Free Speech Systems, Infowars, the company's social media accounts and all copyrights. Final details are not yet decided.
Some of Jones' supporters, including former Donald Trump adviser Roger Stone, have suggested they might try to buy Infowars.
Lawyers for some of the Sandy Hook families have been seeking liquidation.
Although he has since acknowledged that the Sandy Hook shooting happened, Jones has been saying on his recent shows that Democrats and the “deep state” are conspiring to shut down his companies and take away his free speech rights because of his views.
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