Alex Jones-Tied Vendor Moves to Upend Infowars Parent Bankruptcy

An Alex Jones-related company that sold dietary supplements he regularly hawked to his Infowars audience moved to disempower an independent officer running the bankruptcy of the media company’s parent.

PQPR Holdings Limited LLC, a company managed and partially owned by Jones’ father, on Thursday asked the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas to appoint someone new to take over the Chapter 11 case for Free Speech Systems LLC. The request came days after court papers revealed a growing rift between the company’s chief restructuring officer and its lead bankruptcy lawyer, and just weeks before it’s scheduled to present its proposed bankruptcy plan to a judge.

PQPR, an Infowars vendor and also the target of a lawsuit filed by Free Speech, accused the independently-appointed CRO of acting unprofessionally and bringing dysfunction into the proceedings.

PQPR, which is accused of receiving millions in insider payments from Free Speech, takes issue with CRO Patrick Magill’s decision earlier this week to replace the company’s lead bankruptcy lawyer with someone new. Attorney Ray Battaglia, who represented Jones in a separate legal action four years ago, stood in the way of Magill’s desire to move the case forward, the CRO said.

Urging the court to either appoint an examiner to take control of the Chapter 11 case or convert the proceedings to a controlled liquidation, PQPR argued that Magill’s actions “are troubling and indicate continuing issues.”

Magill didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The disputes over Free Speech’s management and legal representation come as the company seeks court approval of a bankruptcy plan that would create a trust to partially pay families of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims. The Sandy Hook families hold $1.5 billion worth of legal judgments against Jones and Infowars for falsely calling the 2012 massacre a hoax.

The famed conspiracy theorist and his right-wing media company filed separate bankruptcy cases in 2022 after losing state court defamation cases.

The Sandy Hook families last month voted 100% in favor of a Chapter 11 plan for Jones that would liquidate and redistribute his property and cash.

Free Speech is represented by O’ConnorWechsler PLLC.

PQPR is represented by Streusand Landon Ozburn & Lemmon LLP.

The case is In re Free Speech Systems LLC, Bankr. S.D. Tex., No. 22-60043, motion filed 3/7/24.