Judge blocks The Onion’s purchase of Alex Jones’ Infowars

CNN
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A bankruptcy judge has blocked The Onion’s winning bid for Alex Jones’ conspiracy platform Infowars, citing concerns the auction process left money on the table.

“I will not accept the sale to the buyer. I think there’s a big lack of clarity here,” Judge Christopher Lopez, a bankruptcy judge for the Southern District of Texas, said in Tuesday’s ruling.

Lopez said the process, “while well thought out, in no way maximized value based on my prior record.”

Last month, a court-appointed receiver said the satirical news site won an auction to buy Infowars parent company Free Speech Systems.

The Onion’s bid was sponsored by the families of the eight school shooting victims and one first responder. According to court documents, The Onion, through its parent company Global Tetrahedron, offered $1.75 million in cash along with a “credit” to Connecticut families who offered to waive 100 percent of the winning bid to support the effort, valuing it. bid of $7 million.

Another competing offer, worth $3.5 million in cash, came from First United American Companies, which is affiliated with Jones and has its own lucrative online nutritional supplement store.

But Lopez said he took issue with the auction process. The adjudicator, who had wide discretion to manage the auction and chose the winner based on his judgment, said that there would initially be a direct auction.

But that process was stamped “best and final offers”. After The Onion was named the winner, Jones and First United American Companies sued to stop what they called the “Frankenstein” bid, due to the families’ promised credit and other complaints about the auction process.

A two-day hearing was held, and witnesses were called to discuss the auction process and the bids involved. Testimony continued Tuesday afternoon, when Lopez testified at nearly 10:30 p.m. Central Time.

While Lopez said he had no problem completing The Onion’s offer and that everyone acted in “good faith,” he said the board left “a lot of money on the table, or the potential for a lot of money on the table.” because of many negotiations on the table” due to the auction process and because other bidders did not know the competing bids. Lopez said the administrator would have to “drag and claw” for every last dollar.

Jones was previously promised almost 1.5 billion dollars to pay To the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting. But he has dragged his feet to pay that judgment, even as court records show he continued to spend tens of thousands of dollars a month.

From platform studio equipment, an online dietary supplement store, a Terradyne armored truck, social media accounts, and even a Winnebago RV was up for sale to the highest bidder.

Jones used Infowars to spread the most disturbing and disgusting lies and conspiracy theories into the public discourse. And he became rich by millions of dollars in the process, profiting from a trading engine he built out of fear selling on his platform.

Ben Collins, CEO of The Onion, said in a statement that they are “deeply disappointed” by the decision, but will “continue to seek a resolution that will help Sandy Hook families receive a positive outcome for the horrors they have endured.”

“We will continue to look for a way to buy InfoWars in the coming weeks. Making the Internet better and more fun is part of our broader mission, regardless of the outcome of this case,” he added.

In a statement, Connecticut family attorney Christopher Mattei said they were “disappointed” with the decision.

“These families, who have already endured many delays and obstacles, remain as strong and determined as ever to hold Alex Jones and his corrupt business accountable for the harm they have caused,” he said. “This decision does not change the fact that, very soon, Alex Jones will start paying his debt to these families and will continue to do so for as long as he needs to.”

It is unclear what will happen to Infowars. Lopez ordered the court-appointed receiver to step back and consider what he wants to do, but said he doesn’t think it makes “sense” to reopen it for auction.

“I’m going to have to make it a lot more comfortable before people start spending a lot of money, and we’ve got two more days of hearings to challenge the business judgment,” he said.

Regardless of the outcome of this sale, Jones still owes the families more than $1 billion, although he has appealed the ruling.

On his show Tuesday evening, Jones celebrated the decision, saying “we can celebrate the judge getting it right with the most ridiculous auction fraud ever known in human history.”