In a victory for Alex Jones, a bankruptcy judge rules that “the process fell down.”

After a grueling hearing that stretched over two days, a federal bankruptcy judge declined to approve the sale of Infowars to Global Tetrahedron, LLC, the Onion’s parent company late on Tuesday.

Last month, Infowars was sold at bankruptcy auction to the company; Onion CEO Ben Collins said they planned to relaunch the conspiracist site as a parody of itself. Instead, the ruling by Christopher Lopez, a bankruptcy judge in Texas’ Southern District, means the auction will be overturned and no new auction will be held. The judge ordered the US trustee who oversaw the bankruptcy process and auction to report back to the court in 30 days with a new plan to bring the case to a close.

Despite a good faith effort by the trustee to maximize profits for the Sandy Hook families, who are Jones’ biggest creditors, in making his ruling Lopez held that “the process fell down.”

  • pelespiritOPMEnglish
    31·
    11 hours ago

    The Sandy Hook families can’t catch a break.

    • Telorand@reddthat.comEnglish
      74·
      11 hours ago

      As much as I wish for the poetic justice of Infowars being sold to The Onion, as long as the families feel like they got justice at the end of this, I won’t complain.

      • kersplooshMAEnglish
        45·
        11 hours ago

        The families apparently wanted The Onion to win the bid. The judge is the one standing in the way while claiming to be acting in the families’ best interests.

        From the AP’s article on this topic:

        [Judge] Lopez said the auction outcome “left a lot of money on the table” for families.
        “You got to scratch and claw and get everything you can for them,” Lopez said.

        Christopher Mattei, a lawyer for the Sandy Hook families who sued Jones in Connecticut, said they were disappointed in the judge’s ruling.

        • pelespiritOPMEnglish
          17·
          10 hours ago

          That’s why this is so awful, this wasn’t about the money. The families want to shut Alex down so he can’t do this to other families. I’m still so thankful for the The Onion trying to step up and do it for them.

        • LeadersAtWork@lemmy.worldEnglish
          14·
          10 hours ago

          The original ruling showed pretty plainly that the overall compensation easily matched or exceeded their opponent’s offer. This judge must believe a bulk payment means more, or he’s an idiot.

        • Telorand@reddthat.comEnglish
          5·
          10 hours ago

          I agree with you, just putting it out there that this is justice for them, not us.

          Alex Jones deserves every bad thing coming to him, but I’ll only be ultimately happy if the families are happy. If they get more money but aren’t happy with who buys Infowars, I will be unhappy with them.

  • naeap@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    17·
    10 hours ago

    Maybe I’m just stupid, but can anyone explain to me why this was overturned?

    Wasn’t that a legal auction and they won said auction?

    • pelespiritOPMEnglish
      211·
      10 hours ago

      From what I could tell from previous articles, it seems to be that the judge is saying that the agreement made between The Onion and the Sandy Hook families is invalid because they were counting forgiven debts as part of the “sale.” It seemed legal and up and up, but the judge is on the side of Jones. I think, but don’t quote me, that Musk was a part of the losing party at auction. The losing party was trying to make it so Alex could come back.

      • Jo Miran@lemmy.mlEnglish
        6·
        2 hours ago

        …the judge is on the side of Jones.

        I believe there are two different things being mixed up here.

        • Jones was asking for the sale to be deemed illegal due to collusion between The Onion and the Sandy Hook parents. The judge dismissed that argument.
        • The judge stated that the trustee made a mistake in calling the auction done before allowing for another round of counter offers. He stated that the amount raised by the sale was not high enough and that too much “money was left on the table”. If anything, this will put more money in the pockets of the Sandy Hook parents.