Filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy requires Jones to turn over detailed financial information to the US Trustee’s Office, the federal office that oversees bankruptcy cases. Jones’s bankruptcy filing will also expose him to potentially painful scrutiny, said Bradley McCormack, a Sader Law Firm bankruptcy attorney who is not advising Jones.
If the Sandy Hook families ask the court to establish this, they are likely to prevail, Davidoff said, as bankruptcy courts generally defer to existing judgments from other courts – in this case, the court that originally ordered the $1.5bn in penalties. In bankruptcy law, the penalties Jones faces for the intentional infliction of emotional distress are a type usually considered “non-dischargeable”. Infowars host Alex Jones ordered to pay Sandy Hook families nearly $1bn over hoax claims – videoīut that’s extremely unlikely. His hope, Davidoff said, might be to persuade a bankruptcy court to discharge most of his debts – essentially to use its authority to wave a magic wand and make them disappear. He also estimated his own assets as worth between “$1m and $10m”. In his November filing, Jones listed as his creditors the families to whom he owes nearly $1.5bn, and American Express.
Under the rules of chapter 11 bankruptcy, the type that Jones filed, that plan must be approved by the creditors and bankruptcy court. Typically, the stay is meant to give a debtor some breathing room to develop a plan to reorganize their finances and pay their creditors. In the short term, Jones is “obviously looking for the benefit of the automatic stay”, said Davidoff, referring to a powerful provision under US law that pauses any legal actions being taken against someone who files for bankruptcy (and, for now, means Jones can retain control of Infowars). Brian Davidoff, a bankruptcy attorney at Greenberg Glusker who is not advising Jones, said he was “befuddled” by Jones’s decision: “I’m not quite sure how it’s going to help him.”
While nothing about declaring bankruptcy prevents Jones from going on TV, the declaration won’t get him off the hook from the court judgments – and could even backfire.
0 kommentar(er)
