ALEX Jones made himself hugely wealthy by spreading lies and crazy conspiracies, then tried to hide them in a dark web of shell companies, lawyers claim.
The Infowars shock jock claimed yesterday that “there’s no money” after jurors ordered him to pay nearly $1 billion to the victims of the Sandy Hook school massacre.
He claims he is broke, but flew with his entourage on a private jet from Texas to give bombastic evidence at the defamation trial in Connecticut.
According to the New York Times, they stayed in a luxurious rented villa with a pool and tennis court.
The 48-year-old Jones is said to be a multi-millionaire thanks to his fake news website Infowars, radio program and lucrative merchandising.
According to reports, he has purchased a series of luxury homes in the Austin area for him and his family members.
But he was shamelessly seeking even more money from his followers when he livestreamed the jury’s verdict yesterday.
He mocked the parents of murdered children for trying to “draw blood from a stone” and urged viewers to donate to “Save Infowars.”
“Your pennies offset their millions,” Jones said.
He had already tried to take advantage of the process by using it to flog books, supplements and commemorative coins.
He even created an ad for a cryptocurrency donation page – with proceeds going directly to his personal account – using video clips of his own heated court testimony. reports CT Insider.
Jones – who is already owed $49 million in damages following a separate lawsuit against Sandy Hook – claims he can’t afford to pay and vowed to keep families “in court for years.”
He claimed in court that any award of damages in excess of $2 million would “sink” Infowars.
Forensic accountants estimate that Jones and Free Speech Systems – the parent company that owns Infowars – are worth up to $270 million.
But in July the company filed for bankruptcy protection, a move that lawyers said was a delaying tactic to frustrate compensation claims.
Three months earlier, Infowars and two other companies linked to Jones had also filed for bankruptcy protection.
Chris Mattei, an attorney for eight Sandy Hook families, said Jones had “once again fled like a coward to bankruptcy court in a transparent attempt to delay confrontation with the families he has hurt for years.”
Financial wreck
Judges in Texas and Connecticut ruled that hearings to award damages could proceed despite the bankruptcy filings.
Families have sued him for outrageous lies that they had faked the deaths of their own children during the 2012 school massacre.
The devastating verdicts should mean he faces financial ruin, but it is unclear how much he will ever have to pay.
Jones claimed in lawsuits last year that he had a negative net worth of $20 million.
Lawyers for Sandy Hook families have painted a very different picture.
Court records show that his fake news site Infowars — which had more viewers than mainstream outlets like Newsweek — had revenues of at least $50 million a year.
And his Infowars store, which sells nutritional supplements and survival gear, is said to have earned more than $165 million between 2015 and 2018.
Lawyers allege Jones tried to hide his assets while facing default judgments in the Sandy Hook lawsuits.
During the trial in Texas, a financial expert testified that Jones withdrew $62 million for himself from his companies last year.
“We can’t put a finger on what he does for a living,” said forensic accountant Bernard Pettingill.
“He didn’t ride a wave – he created a wave.”
Plaintiffs’ attorneys also alleged that Jones reported $54 million in “bad” debts to avoid paying.
“After Alex Jones was indicted for claiming the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre was a hoax, the infamous conspiracy theorist conspired to siphon off his assets into shell companies owned by insiders like his parents, his children, and himself,” a lawsuit alleged.
It was also alleged that he withdrew $18 million from his Infowars company over three years – on top of the $600,000 salary he paid himself – starting in 2018, when the defamation lawsuits were filed.
Many of the suspicious transfers involve a mysterious company called PQPR, which lawyers say is controlled by Jones and his family.
‘Transferred assets’
Shortly after Jones lost a bid to block the Texas lawsuit, PQPR claimed that Free Speech Systems owed her $54 million – almost all of Infowars’ assets.
Free Speech Systems transferred money to PQPR, which passed it on to a series of shell companies controlled by other members of the Jones family, the motion said.
Lawyers claim it was a scheme to place Jones’ real assets into an “alphabet soup of shell entities.”
They claimed: “These are transfers intended for wiretapping [Jones’] assets to make them judgement-proof.”
Jones transferred ownership of his $3 million luxury estate in Austin to his wife Erika Wulff Jones in February, according to public property records.
The Spanish-style villa, built in 2006, covers over 5,000 m² and is situated on over an hectare of land with a swimming pool and spa.
His other properties are said to include a $1.8 million vacation home overlooking a lake 20 miles away from his main residence.
Jones also owns a $900,000 apartment and a four-bedroom family home worth $610,000 in Austin, the United States. This is reported by the New York Post.
He has reportedly sold a number of other properties, including a five-bedroom home in the Rivercrest area for $1.2 million in 2011.
In 2007, he sold a 7,000-square-foot “masterpiece” mansion in the upscale West Lake Hills neighborhood, which was later valued at $5.5 million.
Despite his claim to be broke, Jones continues to live the good life.
In August, he was spotted in Omaha, Nebraska, where he stayed with his wife at a four-star hotel, dined at the expensive 801 Chophouse and was driven around by bodyguards.
Yesterday, as he livestreamed the jury’s verdicts, he said he was “proud” as the damage total reached the ten figures.
“If we don’t reach the billion mark, I won’t be happy,” he said. “I want to be the billion dollar man.”