Alex Jones fined $45.2 million for lying about Sandy Hook

InfoWars’ Alex Jones now has the full weight of a $45.2 million He sits on his balding head after a jury ruled that the man who made his fortune spreading conspiracies and lies must finally pay for it. The jury announced the punitive damages after 4 Counseling hours on Friday.

This new fine is in addition to another $4.1 million he had sentenced to pay by the jury Thursday Compensation for the families of the children killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012. Jones repeatedly claimed the shooting was a “false flag” staged by gun control advocates. The plaintiffs originally demanded $150 million in this case.

The court brought in forensic economist Bernard Pettingill to discuss Jones’ fortune, which was largely made through InfoWars’ online channel and business. Pettingill told the jury that Jones is a manager or agent for approximately nine private companies that are not publicly traded. Apparently, based on all of this information, Pettingill said Jones made about $53.2 million a year between September 2015 and December 2018. Jones paid himself about $6 million a year, which translates to $18 million over three years, the economist estimated.

In fact, Pettingill said Jones may have made even more money after he was promoted from social sites such as Facebook Twitter back in 2018. The economist estimated the net worth of the covert broadcaster, along with the value of its parent company Free Speech Systems, at between $135 million and $270 million.

In addition to selling his own nonsense, Jones also offers dietary supplements through his website. Questions about his net worth have surfaced before. Earlier this year he tried to explain Chapter 11 “Restructuring” Bankruptcy after losing another libel case in Connecticut for failing to appear in court. Last week he filed for bankruptcy also for hands-free systems. That April bankruptcy filing listed InfoWars with assets ranging from $0 to $50,000 and liabilities ranging from $1 to $10 million. The Huffington Post wrote earlier this year that Jones’ dietary supplements and survival gear peddled the company $165 million over three years. Earlier this week, Jones said of the bankruptcy filing: “That’s why they’re doing this, to make this huge judgment on already guilty Alex Jones, which they hope is too big to even get a bond. Well, as soon as you file for bankruptcy, everything goes to court.”

But there is also a consideration of how his many other holding companies such as PLJR Holding and AEJ Austin Holdings LLC may have helped siphon money from Free Speech Systems as has been claimed by the Sandy Hook parents. Pettingill said it’s hard to determine how much Jones is worth because his fortune is so scattered, but after Jones was found liable in the Sandy Hook cases, the conspiracy theorist began pouring $11,000 a day into these shell companies put.

“The numbers are not correct,” said the forensic economist in court.

The InfoWars founder was making nearly $4 million a week after being booted off social media, according to one of the text messages his attorney accidentally sent to plaintiffs’ attorney. One of the plaintiff’s attorneys, Wesley Todd Ball, called InfoWars a “media empire” and said Jones would just keep lying if the jury didn’t break it financially. Ball said before the deliberations that the $4.1 million fine levied on Jones represents “less than 2% of what we know” of Jones’ total assets.

“Do you think he accidentally stumbled backwards into $4 million in a week?” said bullet. “When this man talks, he lies.”

Although Jones has admitted the shooting was “100% real,” the case has revealed how much Jones’ constant lying about Sandy Hook hurt his victims’ families. Parent Neil Heslin, whose 6-year-old son was killed in 2012, said Alex Jones’ conspiracies made life a “living hellsaid his house had been shot at and that he had found shell casings in his driveway. Attorneys for the parents argued that Jones’ rhetoric painted a target on the parents’ backs for the thousands of enthusiastic InfoWars conspirators.