A federal judge ordered the liquidation of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' personal assets and dismissed the bankruptcy case of Infowars' parent company, Free Speech Systems. The decisions leave the future of his Infowars media platform uncertain, as Jones owes $1.5 billion for his false claims that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax, CBS News reports. Judge Christopher Lopez approved converting Jones' proposed personal bankruptcy reorganization to a liquidation but threw out the attempted reorganization of his Austin, Tex.-based company. Many of the Sandy Hook families had asked that the company also be liquidated. It wasn't immediately clear what will happen to the firm that Jones built into a multimillion-dollar moneymaker over 25 years. One scenario could be that the company and Infowars are allowed to keep operating while efforts to collect on the $1.5 billion debt are made in state courts in Texas and Connecticut, where the families won lawsuits against Jones.
Another scenario is that lawyers for the Sandy Hook families go back to the bankruptcy court and ask Lopez to liquidate the company as part of Jones' personal case, because Jones owns the business. Many of Jones' personal assets will be sold off, but he is expected to keep his primary home in the Austin area and some other belongings that are exempt from bankruptcy liquidation. He already has moved to sell his Texas ranch worth about $2.8 million, a gun collection and other assets to help pay debts. Jones has been telling his web viewers and radio listeners that Infowars' parent company, Free Speech Systems, is on the verge of being shut down because of the bankruptcy. A headline on Infowars' website Friday said: "Watch Live! Will This Be The Final Day Of Infowars Transmissions?"