Current:Home > MarketsAlex Jones spent over $93,000 in July. Sandy Hook families who sued him have yet to see a dime -Prime Capital Blueprint
Alex Jones spent over $93,000 in July. Sandy Hook families who sued him have yet to see a dime
View
Date:2025-04-18 02:03:08
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Alex Jones’ personal spending is frustrating families who are trying to collect on the $1.5 billion in judgments against him for calling the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school shooting a hoax.
The conspiracy theorist and Infowars host has been paying his own wife, Erika Wulff Jones, $15,000 a month, according to the most recent spending report he filed in his bankruptcy case — payouts called “fraudulent transfers” by lawyers for some of the shooting victims’ families. Jones says they’re required under a prenuptial agreement.
In July, Jones spent $7,900 on housekeeping. He dished out more than $6,300 for meals and entertainment, not including groceries, which totaled nearly $3,400 — or roughly $850 per week.
A second home, his Texas lake house, cost him nearly $6,700 that month, including maintenance and property taxes, while his vehicles and boats sapped another $5,600, including insurance, maintenance and fuel.
His total personal expenses for July topped $93,000, up from nearly $75,000 in April, not including legal fees and other costs for his court cases, according to bankruptcy filings.
“It is disturbing that Alex Jones continues to spend money on excessive household expenditures and his extravagant lifestyle when that money rightfully belongs to the families he spent years tormenting,” said Christopher Mattei, a Connecticut lawyer for the families. “The families are increasingly concerned and will continue to contest these matters in court.”
In an Aug. 29 court filing, the lawyers for the families said that if Jones doesn’t reduce his personal expenses to a “reasonable” level, they will ask the judge to bar him from “further waste of estate assets,” appoint a trustee to oversee his spending, or dismiss the bankruptcy case.
On his Infowars show Tuesday, Jones said he’s not doing anything wrong.
“If anything, I like to go to nice restaurants. That is my deal. I like to go on a couple of nice vacations a year, but I think I pretty much have earned that in this fight,” he said, urging his audience to donate money for his legal expenses.
Sandy Hook families won nearly the $1.5 billion in judgments against Jones last year in lawsuits over repeated promotion of a false theory that the school shooting that killed 20 first graders and six educators in Newtown, Connecticut, never happened.
Relatives of the victims testified at the trials about being harassed and threatened by Jones’ believers, who sent threats and even confronted the grieving families in person, accusing them of being “crisis actors” whose children never existed.
Collecting the astronomical sum, though, is proving to be a long battle.
When Jones filed for bankruptcy, it put a hold on the families’ efforts to collect the $1.5 billion in state courts as a federal bankruptcy court judge decides how much money Jones can actually pay his creditors.
Lawyers for the families have said in court that it has been difficult for them to track Jones’ finances because of the numerous companies he owns and multiple deals among those corporate entities.
Meanwhile, Jones is still broadcasting. He and his media company, Free Speech Systems, are seeking court approval for a new contract that would pay him $1.5 million a year plus incentive bonuses, up from his current $520,000-a-year salary. The company also filed for bankruptcy protection last year.
On Infowars, Jones said Tuesday that he is more than $1 million in debt. If he gets the salary increase, he said, he would be left with about $300,000 a year after paying his legal bills.
“With all my expenses and things, that’s nothing,” he said. “And I don’t care about that. I’m wearing a shirt I bought, like, eight years ago, and I love it to death.”
Financial documents filed by Jones and his bankruptcy lawyers say his personal net worth is around $14 million. His assets include a home worth $2.6 million, a $2.2 million ranch, a $1.8 million lake house, a $500,000 rental property, and four vehicles and two boats worth more than $330,000 in total. Jones had nearly $800,000 in his bank accounts on July 31, court documents show.
Free Speech Systems, meanwhile, continues to rake in cash from the sale nutritional supplements, survival supplies and other merchandise that Jones hawks on Infowars, bringing in nearly $2.5 million in revenue in July alone, according to Jones’ financial reports, which he signed under penalty of perjury. The company’s expenses totaled about $2.4 million that month.
Meanwhile, some of the Sandy Hook families have another pending lawsuit claiming Jones hid millions of dollars in an attempt to protect his wealth. One of Jones’ lawyers has called the allegations “ridiculous.”
Jones, who is appealing the $1.5 billion in lawsuit awards against him, sat for a deposition in his bankruptcy case Tuesday and Wednesday in his hometown of Austin, Texas, where Infowars is based.
On his show Tuesday, he denied financial wrongdoing.
“I’m not Lex Luthor ... when it comes to finances and life,” he said. “I mean, I’m a straight-up guy. I’m a do-good in Mayberry RFD.”
veryGood! (39)
Related
- Senate begins final push to expand Social Security benefits for millions of people
- Early in-person voting begins ahead of Georgia’s May 21 primary and judicial elections
- Mega Millions winning numbers for April 26 drawing: Did anyone win $228 million jackpot?
- Kate Hudson reveals her relationship with estranged father Bill Hudson is 'warming up'
- Questlove charts 50 years of SNL musical hits (and misses)
- Bernhard Langer, 66, set to return to PGA Tour 3 months after tearing Achilles
- NFL's top 20 remaining free agents include Odell Beckham Jr.
- Trial starts in conspiracy-fueled case of girlfriend charged in Boston police officer’s death
- Whoopi Goldberg is delightfully vile as Miss Hannigan in ‘Annie’ stage return
- NFL draft winners, losers: Bears puzzle with punter pick on Day 3
Ranking
- Selena Gomez's "Weird Uncles" Steve Martin and Martin Short React to Her Engagement
- The Rolling Stones setlist: Here are all the songs on their Hackney Diamonds Tour
- Nestle's Drumstick ice cream fails melt test, online scrutiny begins
- Former sheriff’s deputy convicted of misdemeanor in shooting death of Christian Glass
- Small twin
- Deepfake of principal’s voice is the latest case of AI being used for harm
- Kate Hudson reveals her relationship with estranged father Bill Hudson is 'warming up'
- Nick Daniels III, New Orleans musician and bassist of Dumpstaphunk, dies
Recommendation
The Grammy nominee you need to hear: Esperanza Spalding
MLB power rankings: Red-hot Philadelphia Phillies won't need a turnaround this year
The Best Mother-in-Law Gifts That Will Keep You on Her Good Side & Make Her Love You Even More
Rihanna Reveals How Her and A$AP Rocky’s Sons Bring New Purpose to Her Life
IRS recovers $4.7 billion in back taxes and braces for cuts with Trump and GOP in power
AIGM, Where Crypto Finally Meets Artificial Intelligent
This all-female village is changing women's lives with fresh starts across the nation
How Dance Moms' Chloé Lukasiak Really Felt Being Pitted Against Maddie Ziegler