American conspirator Alex Jones, sentenced to pay nearly US$1.5 billion after denying a school massacre, declared himself bankrupt on Friday, according to court documents seen by AFP.
This figure of the extreme right, who had already filed for bankruptcy in July for his company Free Speech Systems, sent a request to this effect to a bankruptcy court located in Texas.
If the court approves it, the procedure will freeze its assets and prevent their seizure.
In 2012, a young man armed with a semi-automatic rifle killed 20 children and six adults at the Sandy Hook School in Newton, Connecticut. Alex Jones had, against all evidence, affirmed on his Infowars site that the massacre was only a scene piloted by opponents of firearms, and the grieving parents of the “actors”.
This theory had spread on the Internet and several relatives of the victims had filed a complaint for defamation, explaining that they were harassed by admirers of Alex Jones.
The plotter had belatedly admitted publicly the reality of the killing, but was sentenced, after two trials, to pay nearly 1.5 billion dollars in fines or damages.
On the documents sent to the Texas court, he estimates that he has debts between 1 and 10 billion, and assets between 1 and 10 million dollars.
The exact extent of his fortune has been the subject of much speculation, with trials showing that he used his notoriety in conspiracy circles to sell all sorts of products on the internet.
Banned from Twitter, but still present with Infowars, he continues to make headlines. Latest scandal: his Thursday interview with rapper Kanye West, in which the star gave an apology for Adolf Hitler.