A new report from The Washington Post reveals some details of the personal and business finances for far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who is still facing further legal proceedings connected to lies he told about the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, which took place in 2012.
Jones helped spread the conspiracy theory — which has always, of course, been nothing but baseless and delusional — that the shooting didn’t actually happen as reported. The idea was that the incident was actually a so-called false flag operation designed to help boost the push for gun control, and in connection to this nonsense, family members of victims of the very real incident have faced years of sometimes only increasingly objectively shocking harassment. In a Connecticut case dealing with financial penalties to impose on Jones, a parent of a victim discussed how there was even a threat to dig up his late son’s grave. As outlined in the Post, Jones has engaged in years of pushing his money around that could now help him with evading some of the damages he has been ordered to cover — although a lawyer involved with representing the Sandy Hook families suggested they’d settle at least in part for Jones ending his long career in broadcasting.
A main company affiliated with Jones agreed upon a series of debts to another firm known as PQPR Holdings — which is also controlled by Jones and members of his family. The excuse for the huge debts is that PQPR was ostensibly involved in the procurement of supplements Jones has promoted and sold, and as for the sudden revelation of the debts after litigation against Jones for his lies about Sandy Hook already started, the conspiracy theorist’s corner has credited simply mishandled accounting rather than an active attempt to avoid consequences. Jones and Free Speech Systems have been among the named targets of litigation — PQPR apparently hasn’t been similarly included. Free Speech Systems has more recently filed for bankruptcy, and in bankruptcy court, PQPR is pushing for the tens of millions of debts it’s ostensibly owed to be prioritized higher than a category of lingering costs that would include the penalties imposed over Jones’s Sandy Hook lies. Jones’s father (who has worked as a dentist) apparently at least partly manages PQPR.
The Post also reported on how Jones undertook similar financial moves around the time of a divorce, and Jones’s ex-wife Kelly directly alleged that PQPR was originally created in order to help shield some of his assets from potential financial consequences in the divorce, which apparently wasn’t exactly a shock when it was judicially formalized. PQPR was created just months before Kelly filed for divorce, with Jones eventually crediting the creation of the company itself to liability concerns. The supplements with which PQPR was involved in procuring are a major source of revenue for Jones — who has also begun dishing out major sums to other sources close to him, including his personal trainer and sister. His personal trainer created a logistics firm that is now working on orders made by Jones’s followers — and besides an upfront payment of $400,000, he’s now getting over $100,000 a week for the operation and is using staff from Jones’s employ, along with a warehouse associated with Jones himself without paying rent.
