%1

Advisers for bankrupt companies tied to far-right radio host Alex Jones shed light on the conspiracy theorist’s business operations in bankruptcy court Friday while promising transparency — and cash — to families of Sandy Hook shooting victims suing him for defamation, Bloomberg News reported. Three corporate entities linked to Jones, and his website Infowars, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy this week in an attempt to corral yet-unquantified damages owed to Sandy Hook families who successfully sued him for calling the 2012 massacre a hoax. Jones himself didn’t go bankrupt, though, and neither did the most lucrative corner of his business, prompting one plaintiff’s attorney to call the maneuver a “ridiculous trick.” In the first hearing in the bankruptcy case Friday, advisers for the Infowars entities said their goal is to pay the families through a fair process free from the influence of Jones. The radio host gave up his control in the holding companies prior the bankruptcy and has agreed to fund a settlement trust to pay claimants and resolve the long-running defamation battle.

A restructuring officer for conspiracy site Infowars said Friday that representatives for its founder Alex Jones worried the radio-host would damage his brand and his ability to sell merchandise if he also joined his media assets in filing for bankruptcy, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. W. Mark Schwartz, an accountant tapped to serve as Infowars’ chief restructuring officer, said Friday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Victoria, Texas, that Mr. Jones is a prominent figure in the conspiracy theorist community and people working on the bankruptcy case worried that putting him in chapter 11 personally would hinder “his value to us in generating cash flow.” Those involved in preparing the chapter 11 filings were concerned that a bankruptcy filing by Mr. Jones could harm his name “and his ability to generate funds, sell merchandise to these people,” Mr. Shwartz said. Instead, only the properties that own the trademark and web-domain rights for Infowars were put in bankruptcy, which has already delayed a coming trial to establish damages against Mr. Jones for falsely claiming the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax.

The judge presiding over the Boy Scouts of America bankruptcy has approved the organization's request to sell its warehouse and distribution center in North Carolina for roughly $13.5 million and lease back the property from the buyer, the Associated Press reported. The BSA wants to use some of the proceeds from the sale approved by the court Friday as part of its contribution to a proposed $2.6 billion fund to compensate tens of thousands of men who claim they were sexually abused as children while involved in Scouting. After a monthlong trial, Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein continues to weigh whether to approve the Boy Scouts’ reorganization plan. The Boy Scouts of America sought bankruptcy protection in February 2020 to stave off a flood of lawsuits alleging child sexual abuse by Scout leaders and volunteers over several decades. At the time, the BSA was facing about 275 filed lawsuits and was aware of roughly another 1,400 pending claims. But more than 82,200 abuse claims have been submitted in the bankruptcy. Attorneys for BSA insurers, including those that have since reached settlements and now support the plan, have said the sheer volume of claims is an indication of fraud and the result of aggressive client solicitation by attorneys and for-profit claims aggregators.

A Texas judge on Wednesday pushed back the first jury trial over how much conspiracy theorist Alex Jones should pay the families of Sandy Hook victims after his Infowars company sought bankruptcy protection this week, the Associated Press reported. The delay ordered by state District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble comes days after Infowars and two other companies tied to Jones filed for chapter 11 protection in Texas. Jones has lost defamation lawsuits in Texas and Connecticut over his comments that the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre was a hoax. The first trial over how much he should pay the families had been scheduled to begin Monday in Austin, where Infowars is headquartered. A new trial date has not been set. Attorneys for Sandy Hook families have accused Jones of trying to hide millions of dollars in assets. Creditors listed in Infowars’ bankruptcy filing include relatives of some of the 20 children and six educators killed in the 2012 school massacre in Connecticut.

A New Jersey Catholic diocese has agreed to pay $87.5 million to settle claims involving clergy sex abuse with some 300 alleged victims in one of the largest cash settlements involving the Catholic church in the United States, the Associated Press reported. The agreement between the Diocese of Camden, which encompasses six counties in southern New Jersey on the outskirts of Philadelphia, and plaintiffs was filed with U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Camden on Tuesday. The settlement must still go before a U.S. bankruptcy judge. If approved, the settlement would exceed the nearly $85 million settlement in 2003 in the clergy abuse scandal in Boston, although it’s less than other settlements in California and Oregon. Details about what allegedly happened to the roughly 300 victims were not included in the proposed settlement, according to an attorney for some 70 of the victims.

Alabama on Tuesday reached $276 million in settlements with Johnson & Johnson, McKesson Corp and Endo International Plc, resolving claims that the companies fueled an opioid addiction crisis, the state attorney general said, Reuters reported. Under the settlement, drug distributor McKesson will pay $141 million toward the state's efforts to combat the opioid crisis, while drugmakers Johnson & Johnson and Endo will pay $70.3 million and $25 million, respectively, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said in a statement. The three companies will also pay $40 million in attorneys' fees. The state had accused McKesson of failing to prevent the diversion of opioids for illicit purposes, and the drugmakers of engaging in deceptive marketing practices that downplayed the addiction risks of their painkillers. The companies have denied wrongdoing. Alabama was one of four states that declined to join a nationwide $26 billion settlement of opioid litigation by McKesson, two other top U.S. distributors and J&J that was finalized in February. “These three settlement agreements affirm my decision to decline participation in the national opioid settlements, which did not adequately acknowledge the unique harm that Alabamians have endured," Marshall said in a statement.