A bank recently shut down the accounts of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ media company, citing unauthorized transactions — a move that caused panic at the business when its balances suddenly dropped from more than $2 million to zero, according to a lawyer for the company.

The action last week by Axos Bank also exposed worry and doubt at the company, Free Speech Systems, about being able to find another bank to handle its money.

Jones, a conservative provocateur whose Infowars program promotes fake theories about global conspiracies, UFOs and mind control, is seeking bankruptcy protection as he and his company owe $1.5 billion to relatives of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut.

    • Fredselfish@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      He the one that used his platform telling his followers that the Sandy Hook elementary Massacre was a deep state hoax and that the kids and parents were and are actors.

      He literally as spent years building up this conspiracy to the point that the parents of those poor dead children have been harassed for over a decade by crazys. I believe I heard that even one of the parents killed themselves over it.

      He also guy said government was making the frogs gay. Anyway he was sued and they got a billion dollar settlement against him.

    • TheOneCurly@lemmy.theonecurly.page
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      1 year ago

      He spent years spreading lies on his show that the victims of the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting weren’t real and were part of some sort of conspiracy. He lost a civil case brought by the families of the murdered kids who suffered a ton of harassment by his fans. They were awarded a lot of money that he has so far weasled out of paying.

      • mosiacmango@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        The extra bits here are that they had data proving engagement went way, way up when they claimed it was a deep state conspiracy, so they leaned into it hard. This was done cynically, on purpose. They tortured these child murder victim familes for decades, for money.

        The other part is that he lost by default, as he refused to turn over any legally required documents when sued. The only time you would ever opt to do that at trial is if the documents were far more damning than out and out losing. Judges dont like this, and neither do juries.

        The third fun part? One of his lawyers legal aides accidentally sent a full capture of alex jones cellphone, with about 2 yrs of data on it, to the opposing council. Instead of making a legally binding request for opposing council to get rid of this accidental disclosure, he just asked him casually to discard it. Opposing council didn’t reply back, but did wait the legally required time in Texas before it became “fair game,” since alex jones lawyer didnt do his due diligence. A bit of dirty pool from the sandy hook laywer, but a monsterous fuck you to Alex jones that he deserved. His phone was turned over to both the feds for Jan 6th reasons and his ex wife.