A U.S. bankruptcy judge has blocked parody news site The Onion from acquiring conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ website Infowars, ruling that the best bid was not obtained in a bankruptcy auction.
But Judge Christopher Lopez on Tuesday rejected Jones’ argument that there was “collusion” in the auction.
Instead of encouraging more back-and-forth bidding between Onion and the auction’s competitor, First American United Companies Inc., Mr. Lopez said the court-appointed bankruptcy trustee who ran the auction immediately sold Infowars. He said he made a “good faith error” by asking for a final offer. Jones’ supplement sales business was runner-up.
“This should have been reinstated, and it should have been reinstated for everyone,” Lopez said. “It is clear that the trustees left the possibility of a large amount of money on the table.”
The Onion was named the winning bidder for Infowars in the November auction. Jones will declare bankruptcy in 2022 and pay $1.3 billion in legal judgment to the families of 20 students and six teachers who were shot in the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. As a result, they were forced to liquidate their assets.
Courts in Connecticut and Texas have ruled that Jones defamed his family by repeatedly falsely claiming the shootings were staged.
Mr. Jones’ largest creditor, the Connecticut-based Sandy Hook family, will waive some of the repayments from the Infowars sale so other creditors can receive more money. It agreed and increased Onion’s bid.
Mr. Lopez said neither of the two offers for Infowars was large enough given the extent of Mr. Jones’ debts, and he urged the trustees to negotiate with creditors before attempting a new sale of Infowars. told them to try to resolve some of the disputes.
Christopher Murray, the court-appointed administrator charged with selling Mr. Jones’ assets, said Tuesday that the auction was fair and that First American United Companies only complained about the process after learning its bid was not selected. He testified that he had filed a complaint.
The Onion said it plans to relaunch Infowars in 2025 as a parody site filled with “obviously more hateful misinformation” than before.
on Reuters
