BREAKING NEWS: Jury says Infowars host Alex Jones should pay $965 million to people who suffered from Sandy Hook lies. Details to come.
Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
Oh and he says he done saying sorry. Though if he has to actually pay these damages I think he’ll really be sorry.
$965M in damages in CT trial. Not sure how it is split compensatory vs punitive.
Eta: darn, ninja’d.
I hesitate to assume this is a typo when we’re discussing Alex Jones, but… is there a typo in there somewhere?
Yes, he said he’s DONE saying sorry.
The jury ruled $965m compensatory and liable for punitive. In Connecticut, for cases such as this, punitive damages are limited to litigation costs and attorneys’ fees, with the judge making the final determination.
The guy made his money peddling lies at the expense of those harmed, so losing all of that seems just to me.
So is the perjury trial coming next?
Oh, and I forgot about this piece. 
According to the Hartford Courant, there will be two types of punitive damages, one for attorneys fees, etc., which is expected be a million dollars or maybe 2. There is also violation of unfair trade practices. This award is uncapped in CT. So who knows how large that might be. Judge Bellis will decide both of these punitive amounts in the coming days or months. The actual dates for arguments are not yet set.
How does his whole bankruptcy play out here? I’m sure he’ll never be poor because there are enough morons who will continue to donate to his ‘martyrdom’ and buy boner pills or whatever he sells. But can he manage to protect assets via bankruptcy or will the courts be able to penetrate that and extract most/all of his current wealth?
There’s limits to how much you can protect. Like you can protect the equity in one home but the equity has to be less than some fixed dollar amount (that is maybe indexed to inflation?)
You can protect one car (two if married and both spouses are filing for bankruptcy jointly) but I’m pretty sure that there is again a cap on equity. But if you’ve been putting off getting a new garbage disposal or garage door opener, certainly get all of that done right before declaring bankruptcy.
You can buy a bunch of clothes right before declaring bankruptcy and if you wear each item once then they’re used and the value is de minimus. So it’s a good time to update your wardrobe, get your suit taken in / let out, have that ripped seam repaired by a professional. Get everything dry cleaned.
When I was a creditor in bankruptcy court the debtors spent a crap ton on new clothes. It was infuriating.
So yeah, there’s a ton of games that help normal folks maximize what they can keep after bankruptcy. But he can’t use it to protect multiple million-dollar homes that he owns outright. Or certainly financial assets.
Oh good, I’ll keep my hopes alive that the courts get a chance to really sink their claws into old Alex.
I believe this varies by state. Florida allows unlimited protection from bankruptcy on your primary residence as long as you have lived there a bit. For that reason a lot of slimy folks that will likely get sued will try to shelter their assets by sinking much of their wealth in a FL residence.
How about money in offshore accounts, assets tranfered to relatives, or in trusts?
That could be. My experience was not in Florida and the debtors decided not to keep their house anyway. (They were under water on it, so no asset to protect.)
Stupidly, when they are determining how much you can pay your creditors each month after bankruptcy (is that a chapter 11?) they include your mortgage payment even if you’re not keeping the house. You could have a $5,000 a month mortgage and $1,000 a month rent and you can choose to use the mortgage payment as your housing expense. It’s ridiculous.
Not protected in bankruptcy… if the court knows about it.
And pre-bankruptcy it’s not protected from garnishment either, but the onus is on the creditor to find the asset and garnish it.
alex jones is an angrier PT Barnum. His followers/adherents/listeners/donors should have 25% of their money delivered to the barnum estate for their sucker-ness.
if he delivered his schtick outside a subway station he’d be…avoided by all.
i hope he begs himself hoarse and has a massive coronary on the air some day. a waste of carbon-based cells.
I describe Alex Jones as Rush Limbaugh on PCP.
if he could only be on pcp and leap off a building.