The judge rejected The Onion’s bid
The Onion is not the Winner of Infowars: A Federal Court Decision to Distinguish Between Alex Jones and the Parents of Sandy Hook Elementary School
The fate of the show could be decided today, as a federal judge hears arguments regarding the sale of the show to The Onion.
The owners of The Onion have just learned they are not the winners of Alex Jones’ Infowars company. A federal court judge rejected the offer and process used in last month’s auction.
The decision is significant and rare for Jones, who has been in a legal battle with the relatives of the adults and children who were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Juries in Connecticut and Texas awarded the families a total of nearly $1.5 billion in damages; a Connecticut appeals court last week upheld the bulk of the damages on appeal, but struck down $150 million from one specific claim that the court deemed legally flawed. Jones owes over a billion dollars to the families.
The losing bidder, FUAC, bid $3.5 million in cash. The Onion offered half that amount in cash but added a sweetener: The Connecticut families would voluntarily turn over enough of their proceeds from the sale to boost the payout for other creditors enough to beat any other offer. According to the trustee, that arrangement could yield those other creditors up to twice as much as FUAC’s offer.
“The sale process was fatally flawed in its execution,” FUAC argued in court papers filed in advance of the hearing. “It was behind closed doors, cloaked in secrecy” and the sweetener “provides no actual value” because the families haven’t yet collected a penny of it and Jones is still appealing the damages.
The trustees moved on Sunday night to disqualify Jones’ argument because they claimed they have no merit, after coming in after a court deadline.
Jones is “trying to thwart a sale that is the best interest of the creditors,” Murray argued in the filing. The “best and final offer” is a “customary strategy” that maximizes value to creditors, and no one objected until they found out they didn’t win,” Murray noted. He believed the objections to be a desperate attempt to manufacture controversy.
The Onion said that the challenges were an attempt to distract and delay the sale. The media company denied any wrongdoing and said the judge has wide discretion on what to do.
Lawyers for The Onion’s parent company argued that the court needed to address a question about the Trustee’s reasonable business judgement.
For their part, the Connecticut families are also asking the judge to confirm the sale. Even though the families’ lawyers claim that the deal structure is an unprecedented one, the court could deny the sale if nobody objected.
Judge Christopher Lopez Objection to Murray’s Corrupt Business Alex Jones, Charged with a Crimes Innocent at the Sandy Hook School
It’s the most difficult time of the year for the families, just a few days away from the shooting deaths of their children at the Sandy Hook school.
Lopez claimed that Murray left a lot of money on the table, and that the process was “doomed” when he canceled the live auction and called for sealed offers.
“These families, who have persevered through countless delays and obstacles, remain resilient and determined to hold Alex Jones and his corrupt businesses accountable for the harm they have caused,” she said.
The lack of transparency, unfairness and failure to maximize value for the people who are owed money was what Judge Christopher Lopez objected to after two days of testimony.
