Onion’s bid for Infowars still in court as judge reviews auction
Bankruptcy judge reviewing The Onion’s bid for Alex Jones The Infowars platform was due to hear a second day of testimony on Tuesday after an auctioneer defended the satirical media’s comments. winning bid in November.
It’s unclear how soon U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez in Houston will decide whether to approve the offer. The Onion, which wants to transform Infowars’ website and social media accounts into parodiesoffered $1.75 million for Infowars assets at the auction.
Jones did not attend the start of the key hearing on Monday and continued to broadcast from his studios in Austin.
Jeff Tanenbaum, president of ThreeSixty Asset Advisors, was questioned Monday by lawyers for Jones and the company in a Houston courtroom about how The Onion’s bid was valued at $7 million and why a live auction did not take place. He defended both the value of the bid and his selection after the two sealed bids were opened.
Lopez could ultimately decide to rescind The Onion’s bid, name the Jones-affiliated company the winner, or hold another auction, among other possibilities.
Jones and First United American Companies, which operates a website on behalf of Jones that sells nutritional supplements and which submitted the other bid, are alleging fraud and collusion during the auction which ended on November 14. The trustee and The Onion deny the allegations, accusing Jones and the company of sour grapes. The first American companies offered $3.5 million.
The sale of Infowars is part of Jones’ personal bankruptcy casewhich he filed at the end of 2022 after being ordered to pay almost 1.5 billion dollars in defamation lawsuits in Connecticut and Texas brought by relatives of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut. Jones has repeatedly called the 2012 shootings, which killed 20 children and six educators, a hoax staged by actors aimed at increasing gun control.
Most of the proceeds from the sale of Infowars, as well as many of Jones’ personal assets, will be donated to the Sandy Hook families to help satisfy judgments rendered by juries and judges in state courts in Connecticut and Texas. Part of the proceeds will go to Jones’ other creditors.
Onion’s offer also included a commitment from many Sandy Hook families to forfeit some or all of the auction proceeds owed to them to give other creditors a total of $100,000 more than what they were owed. they would receive under other offers.
The trustee, Christopher Murray, chose The Onion, saying his proposal was better for creditors because they would receive more money. The Onion valued the offer, along with that of the Sandy Hook families, at $7 million, because that amount was equal to a purchase price that would provide the same amount of money to other creditors.
Tanenbaum testified that he agreed with the $7 million valuation and believed The Onion’s offer complied with auction rules.
A lawyer for Jones, Ben Broocks, asked Tanenbaum how it was possible that the Sandy Hook families’ offer increased The Onion’s offer to such a high amount.
“This means that the value of the purchase price has increased because another purchase price would have to be higher than that value in order to provide the same net benefit to this group of creditors,” Tanenbaum said.
During his opening argument, Broocks said there was no way The Onion would have been chosen over First United American.
“How can a $1.75 million offer beat a $3.5 million offer?” he asked. “How is this $1.75 million higher? Well, it’s voodoo economics to use a phrase.
Joshua Wolfshohl, Murray’s attorney, told the judge Monday that no wrongdoing occurred during the auction. He called the complaints by Jones and First United American Companies unfounded.
“The vast majority of their complaints are just fantastical, imaginary conspiracy theories that have no basis in reality,” he said.
The Murray, The Onion and Sandy families deny allegations of wrongdoing. In his own court filing, Murray called the allegations “an inappropriate attempt by a disappointed bidder to influence an otherwise fair and open auction process.”
All equipment and other assets of the Infowars studio in Austin, Texas, as well as its social media accounts, websites, video archives and product brands were up for auction. Jones uses the studio to broadcast his far-right, conspiracy theory-filled shows on the site Infowars, his account on the social platform X and radio stations.
Jones created another studio, websites and social media accounts in case The Onion got approval to buy Infowars and forced it out. Jones said he could continue to use Infowars platforms if the winner of the auction was friendly with him.
Jones is appealing the $1.5 billion judgments citing free speech rights, but acknowledged that the school shooting happened.
