Sandy Hook families offer to settle Alex Jones’ $1.5 billion legal debt for a minimum of $85 million

Sandy Hook families who won nearly $1.5 billion in legal judgments against conspiracy theorist Alex Jones for calling the 2012 Connecticut school shooting a hoax have offered to settle that debt for just pennies on the dollar — at least 85 million dollars over ten years.

The offer was made last week in Jones’ personal bankruptcy case in Houston. In a legal filing, attorneys for the families said they believed the proposal was a viable way to resolve the bankruptcy reorganization cases of both Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems.

But in the strongly worded document, the lawyers continued to accuse the Infowars host of failing to curb his personal spending and “extravagant lifestyle,” of failing to preserve the value of his assets, of refusing to to sell assets and that he could not provide certain financial documents.

“Jones has in no way failed to act as the fiduciary required by the Bankruptcy Code in exchange for the breathing space he has enjoyed for almost a year. His time is up,” attorneys for the Sandy Hook families wrote.

The families’ lawyers offered Jones two options: either liquidate his estate and give the proceeds to creditors, or pay them at least $8.5 million a year for 10 years – plus 50% of any income over $9 million a year .

At a court hearing in Houston on Monday, Jones’ personal bankruptcy attorney, Vickie Driver, suggested that the offer of an $85 million settlement, over 10 years, was too high and unrealistic for Jones to pay.

“There are no financial records that will ever show that Mr. Jones ever did that… 10 years from now,” she said.

In a new bankruptcy plan filed Nov. 18, Free Speech Systems said it could afford to pay creditors about $4 million a year, down from an estimate earlier this year of $7 million to $10 million a year. The company said it expects to earn about $19.2 million next year from sales of the nutritional supplements, apparel and other merchandise Jones promotes at his shows, while operating costs including salaries would be about $14.3 million.

Personally, Jones listed about $13 million in total assets in his most recent financial statements filed with bankruptcy court, including about $856,000 in various bank accounts.

According to the bankruptcy orders, Jones received a salary of $20,000 every two weeks, or $520,000 per year. But this month, a court-appointed restructuring official increased Jones’ pay to about $57,700 a fortnight, or $1.5 million a year, saying he is “grossly” underpaid because of how important he is to the media company.

Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez on Monday rejected the $1.5 million salary, saying the pay increase did not appear to have been properly implemented under bankruptcy laws and a hearing had to be held.

If Jones does not accept the families’ offer, Lopez would determine how much he would pay the families and other creditors.

After 20 children and six teachers were killed by a gunman at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012, Jones repeatedly said on his show that the shooting never happened and was staged in an effort to tighten gun laws.

Relatives of many, but not all, of Sandy Hook’s victims have sued Jones in Connecticut and Texas, winning nearly $1.5 billion in judgments against him. In October, Lopez ruled that Jones could not use bankruptcy protection to avoid paying more than $1.1 billion of that debt.

Relatives of the school shooting victims testified at the trials that they were harassed and threatened by Jones’ believers, who sent threatening messages and even confronted the grieving families in person, accusing them of being “crisis actors” whose children never existed.

Jones is appealing the sentences, saying he did not receive fair trials and that his speech was protected by the First Amendment.