2y ago

Alex Jones must pay $1.1 billion of Sandy Hook damages despite bankruptcy - court

www.reuters.com Alex Jones must pay $1.1 billion of Sandy Hook damages despite bankruptcy - court

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones cannot use his personal bankruptcy to escape paying at least $1.1 billion in defamation damages stemming from his repeated lies about the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school massacre, a U.S. bankruptcy judge ruled Thursday.

169 comments

They say this, yet he's still making and spending to the tune of 100k per month and the courts aren't doing anything about it. Rich people don't get to go broke like the rest of us, he's gonna keep living in a nice house and making millions and get away with not paying anyone, and the courts won't do shit
- This is part of due process in doing something about it. Unfortunately it's a lot faster to commit crimes and get "creative" with moving money in not-quite-crimes-but-still-bullshit than it is to weigh up their legality and enforce appropriate penalties.
  When a legal system relies heavily on precedent as guidance and technicalities can destroy a decision, and fixing that might take decades and destroy lives, you have to make sure it's good. Especially when this many people are watching.
  Unfortunately you're very right that the slow speeds to ensure precision are easily and visibly exploited by scumlickers like Jones.
  
  The good news is that he’s not nearly clever enough to actually hide assets. They will get tracked over time and seized.
- I can see why you would think this, but this is a very unusual case. Particularly so given the decision in this article.
  You're dead right in that rich people don't go broke like the rest of us - because they have accountants and lawyers set up complex business structures so if something falls over they can just walk away (or drive away in their nice car to their nice house).
  This article is pretty much saying that all that usual dance isn't going to work in this case - he still has to pay $1.1b.
  Also, there's no law that prevents him from going on making money. That may not feel "right" or just but that dynamic is the same even for poor people. That said, at 100k per month it would take him 916 years to pay $1.1b soo... he might curtail his luxurious lifestyle, maybe not.
- At what point does his bankruptcy and the law diverge, is where what need reevaluated

Couldn't have happened to a more deserving "person". This isn't going to bring the kids back but at least it'll stop people from fucking harassing the parents decades later. Jones is mentally fucked up and he deserves to be locked up.
- And yet I believe he still will not pay them a dime... just like if trump loses all his court cases in New York, I really believe he will just refuse to pay and force them to chase him around asking for that money for the rest of his life. Rich people never have to pay fines in the US, its all for show, they always find a way to get around everything.
  
  The victims will almost certainly not see the full $1.1B, or even anything close to that. Not because Jones will hole up his money and refuse to pay, but because Jones doesn't have the assets to cover it, and never will. With a judgement hanging over him, he will be unable to raise the capital necessary to ever pay it back--it takes money to make money, especially when you need to crack the billion dollar mark.
  Jones himself is still fucked. Rich people get away with stuff because they hire good lawyers. Jones forgot that part of the plan.
  
  You are aware that he doesn't have a choice whether he pays, right?
  Court orders will be issued for his assets. You don't see rich people paying for their crimes because they get away with it. Successful scumbags don't put themselves in positions like this.

HAHA
Fuck you Alex Jones

That's... wild.
Aside from whatever you feel about this guy, he's fucked. It might take some time but the victims will start to get court orders to seize his assets, which they can then present to banks, police, and other authorities, who will then turn them over directly.
The USA has it's fingers in almost every financial network in the world and Alex Jones can no longer be safe anywhere except basically crypto, bad actor countries, and I guess cash in his mattress. For the rest of his life. And he can't escape it with bankruptcy.
He'll be better off trying to get citizenship in Russia or China or something and never coming back.
- Good.
  
  Yep, good. Look at the damage he did. He'll have sufficient funds to have food and shelter. Anything beyond that he does not deserve.
  How much divisiveness did he cause?
  How many screaming arguments?
  How many families did he break up?
  How many bar room fights?
  How much pain for grieving parents?
  Fuck him, he's a cunt.

- I heard this picture as the "failure sound" on The Price is Right.

Time to start freezing assets and looking for what he's got offshore (and in Russia).

Well since the USA has brought back debtor prisons anyhow, I know someone that ought to be in one
- Dude, what the fuck. How morally bankrupt is the US?
  
  Think of the lowest point you can imagine and still have a functioning society. Realize there's at least a solid third that want to go lower than that.
- Debtors prisons are still illegal and don't exist in the US. It's all explained in the article, but the issue is really that poor people have bad legal representation, local judges aren't all great, and private debt collection is out of control.
  In the US, your creditors should generally only be able to garnish your wages up to legal maximums. You can't get prison sentences in civil trials.
  Arrests are a last-resort way for a court to force someone to appear. The other jail time is basically contempt of court for failing to comply with court orders. These should probably exist in general, but they are likely misapplied for the above reasons in these cases.
  Write to you representatives about the above stuff, not debtors prisons, since they won't know what you are talking about.
- How is that constitutional?
  EDIT: The U.S. government needs to be overthrown so bad 🤦
  
  That article is about state governments. Overthrowing the federal government probably won't be the best course of action.

I love this for him.

I was once told by a wise man, “Jar-jar Binks has a Caribbean, black accent”.
This is what the “loser little, lil titty baby” deserves. Only a shame it’s arriving so late.

Couldn’t have happened to a better guy, honestly

Good

So how does paying these fines work? Does he give a percentage of his earnings or what?
- Creative accounting will show him making $0/year until his death
  
  If this ends up being met with creative accounting, I'd be happy for the courts to answer with creative torture.
- I think it's extremely unlikely he'll earn a billion dollars before he drops dead of an aneurysm in the middle of a far right screed.
  It's a thousand million dollars and it's been years since they needed him to funnel unmedicated schizophrenics into political extremism.
  
  Yeah I know the number is kinda for show. It's more to keep him laying indefinitely. Only question is how he even pays the fraction he'll be able to pay in his lifetime.
- Forced selling off of assets?

Good
- Yeah, schadenfreude aside, I'm glad that someone doing obviously criminal shit is seeing repercussions. The guy could have worked a normal job, done normal journalism. Instead, he decided that spreading hateful misinformation is a business model. This punishment makes it not a business model.
  
  Very much TBD on that one, I don't think he has paid a dime or changed his lifestyle at all. His show is the same and he's still raking it in.

Nothing matters until they find him guilty of contempt of court in not paying his judgements, everything else is just wasting time

Now i understand why he is appearing on russian propaganda shows, perhaps trying to pull a Snowden?

Still waiting

so should I buy Super Male Vitality drops to support Sandy Hook victims?
- Only if you like Pb in your supplements. And I mean lead, not peanut butter.
  
  How is this not all over the news?

How? where's the money?

.1 billion is like 100x more than I'll probably ever see in my life.

LMAO

Bwahahahahahaha!

Wring him dry

ya but he has to look at his face every day. hope his life is as tortured as his brain appears to be. I'm glad the thumbnail only shows half his mug

There are more amenable murders

Lemmy: "NO ONE SHOULD BE A BILLIONAIRE" also Lemmy: "1 billion dollars is a fair punishment for saying stupid shit"
- Those are very different things...
- nobody in particular is getting a billion dollars from lawsuits against jones, because there are so many people suing him. hopefully his operation is just eroded into obscurity and then we have to hear from the next ten dozen idiots who will take his place. it's the knowledge fight, baby.
  
  No single defamation case against an individual should have 1 billion dollars in damages. If this was anyone other than a widely hated political actor people would rightfully say that its an excessive amount.
- Huh? Is that relatable in your head? That explains some things.
- I bet it'd be less "stupid shit" if you were on the receiving end of his terror campaign, receiving constant death threats and harassments by his fans, all of whom claiming that your dead child never existed and to stop lying and fake crying.
  
  I think punishments should be realistic and not make a man pay 1 billion fucking dollars because he said something stupid. Take the money he made from such statements, with maybe a little bit more on as punishment. There is no world in which a 1.1b amount makes sense. The only purpose is to put him in debt for his entire life, and since this is a political hot button issue people will cheer it along.
  If you were the one who actually killed the kids you would have a lower damages value.

Not really understanding how this is considered justice.
- Nobody’s being made whole from this judgement I suppose. This isn’t the kind of thing where a physical object can be replaced.
  What’s your suggestion for how the court should have doled out justice?
  
  Give out the state maximum punishment of $1k for punitive damages in connecticut.. i think worst case is the $300k punitive damages for state of Texas or 1% of net worth if class action.
  I actually am not super familiar with the case but I dont think anyone on earth has a liquid $1B unless you are saudi royalty..
  But there were (4?) cases right? Each of the families got between 300M and 500M? Hes not the one that killed the babies, what kind of precedence are they trying to make?

169 comments