How Alex Jones might make it harder for Sandy Hook families to collect the nearly $1 billion payment a jury awarded them, according to a bankruptcy expert

• Alex Jones was ordered Wednesday to pay nearly $1 billion to the families of the Sandy Hook victims.
• How much Jones pays for the damages could fall upon the outcomes of a bankruptcy case in Texas.

On Wednesday, a Connecticut jury ordered Alex Jones, host of Infowars, to pay the families of Sandy Hook victims a staggering $965 million in compensatory damages for defamation after he claimed the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012 was a hoax.

Each of the 15 plaintiffs, which includes families of the victims and an FBI agent who responded to the shooting, was awarded anywhere from $28 million to $120 million.

This does not include a separate ruling from August when a Texas jury ordered Jones to pay $49.3 million in damages to the parents of one of the Sandy Hook victims, six-year-old Jesse Lewis.

Jones faces one more case brought forward by the parent of a boy who died in the shooting, also back in Texas.

Now the question remains: How will Alex Jones pay for any of the damages?

A bankruptcy filing in July from Infowar's parent company, Free Speech Systems, which is controlled by Jones, showed that the company had $14.3 million in total income as of May 31, nearly $11 million coming from product sales. This could include vitamin supplements that Jones regularly promotes on his show, for example.

A forensic economist who previously testified in the first Texas trial also estimated that Jones and Free Speech Systems have a combined wealth between about $135 million and $270 million.

Jones has repeatedly claimed that he does not have the money to pay the judgment and has solicited donations since the verdict.

"The media says, 'I won't pay.' Yeah because I don't have it," Jones said on his show on Thursday.

Legal experts have told Insider that Jones may not be required to compensate the families in full. However, because of the stunningly large figure the jury established from the outset, no matter how much leeway Jones is given in the end, the final figure could still amount to a debt that follows Jones for the rest of his life.

Even so, there are still remaining legal matters that stand in the way of compensation for the Sandy Hook families.

An attorney for Alex Jones did not respond to Insider's request for comment on the story.

Alex Jones's decaying bankruptcy 'shield'

Free Speech Systems filed for bankruptcy on July 29 under a specific provision of Chapter 11 bankruptcy — known as Subchapter V — that was created by Congress to help small businesses through what is typically a long and expensive process.

One of the ways the provision does that is by paring down some of the oversight involved in bankruptcy because Subchapter V trustees will have "limited investigatory duties," Nicholas A. Koffroth, a bankruptcy lawyer at Fox Rothschild, told Insider.

By doing so, "(Free Speech Systems) could kind of, hopefully, quickly move through bankruptcy without too much digging into their financial affairs," he said.

Jones lost all three separate lawsuits against him last year in Connecticut and Texas by default because he failed to turn over documents, including financial records. The trials this year have been to determine the dollar amount of damages Jones must pay families.

But the move ultimately may not have worked in Jones' and his company's favor. The filing has since provided more insight into Jones's operations and attracted further scrutiny into their financial records, Koffroth said.

"What's been disclosed so far is that there's this pretty complicated web of entities that Alex Jones controls, or that his family controls, (and how they) have been kind of exchanging money in an unusual way," the bankruptcy lawyer said.

One of these entities includes a company called PQPR Holdings, which names Jones as its manager. According to the bankruptcy filing, Free Speech Systems owes the company nearly $54 million.

But Bernard Pettingill, Jr., the forensic economist who testified in the Texas trial and provided an estimate of Jones's wealth, said that the PQPR is a shell company Jones is using to pay himself back.

Family members of nine of the Sandy Hook victims filed a motion about a month after Free Speech Systems filed for bankruptcy. It asked a judge to remove Jones from the control of the Infowars parent company and appoint a committee representing the families that could scrutinize Free Speech Systems' operations.

The members collectively called "Sandy Hook Families" also claimed that the bankruptcy filing was a legal tactic to limit the financial damages Jones could be liable for.

"It really seems like, and what the [Sandy Hook Families] have been arguing is that this is really a contrived relationship to render Free Speech Systems insolvent and unable to pay any judgment if one was entered," Koffroth said.

In September, a bankruptcy judge in Houston removed Jones's attorney and chief restructuring officer from the bankruptcy case and expanded the investigatory duties of a trustee who was appointed by the Justice Department and was already overseeing the case, according to The New York Times.

Part of the trustee's responsibility will probe Jones's various operations, which could yield "significant" outcomes against Jones.

"What seems like an attempt to shield Free Speech Systems from actually having to pay these judgments — at this point, doesn't seem like the ploy is going to work," Koffroth said.

On Wednesday, on the day of the nearly $1 billion judgment, a Houston judge approved the trustee's request to begin mediation between Jones, Free Speech Systems, and families of the Sandy Hook victims.

Alex Jones could go dark

Another possible but highly unlikely scenario Jones could stiff-arm attempts to pay heavy damages is by shutting down his Infowars podcast, Koffroth said.

"He might just decide to stop podcasting to stop generating revenue for Free Speech Systems," he said. "And say, 'Well, we have no revenue now, so I can't pay going forward. All you have is just whatever is remaining that you can scrounge up.'"

"I find it hard to believe that Alex Jones would actually stop podcasting. (The families) might find that victory enough if he did, but it's certainly one wrinkle in their ability to collect from Free Speech Systems," Koffroth added.

On Thursday, Jones returned to his regularly scheduled broadcasting, claiming to lead "the assault on the New World Order." One viewer called in to suggest to Jones to host a fundraising dinner.

"I'm a big boy. I knew this was going to happen. I'm going to follow through to the end," Jones said.