Alex Jones’ InfoWars Files for Bankruptcy

A number of companies owned by Alex Jones, including InfoWars and its affiliates Prison Planet and IWHealth, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Sunday, amid an ongoing lawsuit that families of the children murdered in the Sandy Hook massacre filed against the conspiracy theorist.

Jones’s Chapter 11 filing states that the conspiracy theory site InfoWars currently has between $0 and $50,000 worth of assets, and owes between $1 million and $10 million. Jones has been the defendant in a years-long lawsuit filed against him by Sandy Hook parents, who say they have been subjected to death threats and harassment from his followers as the result of Jones repeatedly suggesting that the shooting was a “giant hoax” and that the victims there were crisis actors. (Jones has stated he no longer believes the shooting was a hoax.)

Jones repeatedly skipped scheduled depositions in the case, claiming he was sick; he was subjected to daily fines earlier this month for skipping the depositions, before eventually being deposed on April 5 and 6. 

According to the records filed in Texas Southern District Bankruptcy Court, InfoW LLC, formerly known as InfoWars LLC, filed for bankruptcy, as did IWHealth (InfoWars Health, which sells supplements and other products) and Prison Planet (InfoWars' video site). There is no current indication that Jones’s Free Speech Systems LLC, a parent company that owns various of Jones’ endeavors, including InfoWars, has filed for bankruptcy at this time.

Last month, Jones offered to give each family $120,000 in a settlement offer; the families rejected it, calling the offer "a transparent and desperate attempt by Alex Jones to escape a public reckoning under oath with his deceitful, profit-driven campaign against the plaintiffs and the memory of their loved ones lost at Sandy Hook.” 

The filing makes clear that Jones's companies are being affected by the Sandy Hook lawsuit, and perhaps by his general decline in relevance, though his ideas remain as popular as ever.