A company affiliated with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones asked a federal judge on Monday to disqualify a bid by the satirical news outlet The Onion to buy Jones' Infowars at a bankruptcy auction, alleging fraud and collusion.
The company, First United American Companies, which is affiliated with a Jones website that sells dietary supplements, was the only other bidder at the recent auction, offering $3.5 million. In a filing in federal bankruptcy court in Houston, a lawyer for the company asked the judge to declare it the winning bidder instead of The Onion.
The lawyer, Walter Cicack, claimed that the bankruptcy trustee overseeing the auction improperly colluded with The Onion and families of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut in naming The Onion the winning bidder. Cicack also alleged the trustee violated rules for the sale set by the judge, and said the company's cash offer was twice the amount of The Onion's.
The bankruptcy auction was held last week as part of the liquidation of Jones’ assets, including Infowars. Proceeds from the sale will go to Sandy Hook families and other creditors. Jones filed bankruptcy in 2022 after he was ordered to pay nearly $1.5 billion in defamation lawsuits filed by the families for calling the 2012 shooting that killed 20 children and six educators a hoax staged by actors to increase gun control.
Ben Collins, CEO of The Onion’s parent company, Chicago-based Global Tetrahedron, issued a statement Monday through a spokesperson.
“We’re obviously disappointed he’s lashing out by creating conspiracies, but we’re also not surprised,” he said, referring to Jones.
The bankruptcy trustee appointed to oversee the sale, Christopher Murray, declined to comment Monday. A lawyer for the Sandy Hook families, Christopher Mattei, also declined to comment.
In a response filed in court later Monday, Murray called the allegations “baseless.” He said the motion by First United American to disqualify The Onion was “a disappointed bidder’s improper attempt to influence an otherwise fair and open auction process.”
Murray also wrote, “Having failed in its prior efforts to bully the Trustee and his advisors into accepting its inferior bid, FUAC now alleges, without evidence, collusion and bad faith in an attempt to mislead the Court and disqualify its only competition in the auction.”
Murray filed separate court papers Monday asking the judge to approve the sale of Infowars to The Onion.
Monday's filing by First United American Companies included the formal bid submitted by The Onion, revealing that it offered $1.75 million for Infowars along with certain incentives by Sandy Hook families who won their defamation lawsuit against Jones. The families agreed to forgo up to 100% of their share of the Infowars sale proceeds and give it to other Jones creditors.
With the families' offer, other Jones creditors would get a total of $100,000 more than they would get if First United American Companies bought Infowars, according to The Onion's bidding document.
Murray told the bankruptcy judge during a court hearing Thursday that the families' incentives made it a better offer than the one by the Jones-affiliated company.
“The creditors ended up significantly better off,” Murray told the judge, adding that one of his responsibilities was to maximize value for creditors.
Judge Christopher Lopez, who said he had questions about the sale process and concerns about transparency, ordered a hearing to see exactly what happened with the auction and how the trustee chose The Onion. The date of the hearing has not been set.
Jones has been criticizing the sale process on his show and social media sites, calling it “rigged” and a “fraud.”
Over the weekend, Collins posted a series of comments about the auction on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“Long and short of it: We won the bid and — you’re not going to believe it — the previous InfoWars folks aren’t taking it well,” he wrote.
Collins said last week that The Onion planned to turn the Infowars website into a parody site, taking aim at conspiracy theorists and other social media personalities while promoting gun violence prevention efforts.
Cicack also said in Monday's court filing that the trustee improperly changed the auction process “from a live auction to a secret process.” Cicack said that after sealed bids were submitted Nov. 8, it was expected that there would be a round of live bidding on Nov. 13.
But instead, he said, Murray decided to ask the two bidders to submit another offer as their final and best proposal, which they did. Murray then chose from those final bids without holding a round of live bidding. He alleged Murray violated the auction rules.
Lopez's 20-page order on the sale procedures, issued in September, made such a live bidding round optional. And it gave broad authority to Murray to conduct the sale, including the power to reject any bid, no matter how high, that was “contrary to the best interests” of Jones, his company and their creditors.
Cicack called the Sandy Hook families' portion of The Onion's bid “Monopoly” money with no value.
“It is also the product of impermissible collusion with the Onion in an effort to ‘rig’ the auction with the goal of achieving a specific result desired by the Connecticut Families,” he wrote.
A copy of the satirical outlet The Onion is seen Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024, in Little Rock, Ark. (AP Photo/Jill Bleed)
FILE - Right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones speaks to the media after arriving at the federal courthouse for a hearing in front of a bankruptcy judge, Friday, June 14, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)
FERGUS FALLS, Minn. (AP) — Nearly three years after a couple from India and their two young children froze to death while trying to cross the border from Canada into the U.S., two men went on trial Monday on human smuggling charges, accused of being part of a criminal network that stretched around the world.
Prosecutors say Indian national Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, 29, ran part of the scheme and recruited Steve Shand, 50, of Florida, to shuttle migrants across the border. Both men have pleaded not guilty in federal court in Minnesota. They're standing trial before U.S. District Judge John Tunheim, with proceedings expected to last about five days. They each face four counts related to human smuggling.
On Jan. 19, 2022, Shand was allegedly waiting in a truck for 11 migrants, including the family of four from the village of Dingucha in Gujarat state. Prosecutors say 39-year-old Jagdish Patel; his wife, Vaishaliben, who was in her mid-30s; the couple's 11-year-old daughter, Vihangi; and 3-year-old son, Dharmik, died after spending hours wandering fields in blizzard conditions as the wind chill reached minus 36 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 38 Celsius).
Prosecutors say when Jagdish Patel's body was found, he was holding Dharmik, who was wrapped in a blanket.
A jury of eight men and six women, including two alternates, was seated Monday afternoon. Before jury selection began in the morning, defense attorneys objected to prosecutors’ plan to show seven photos of the frozen bodies of Jagdish Patel and his family, including close-up images of the children.
Shand's attorney, Aaron Morrison, said the heart-wrenching images could cause “extreme prejudice to the jury” and asked for the photos to be removed as evidence. Prosecutors argued the photos were necessary to show the family was not adequately prepared by Shand and Harshkumar Patel for the frigid conditions.
Tunheim allowed the images to remain as evidence.
Patel is a common Indian surname and the victims were not related to Harshkumar Patel. Federal prosecutors say Harshkumar Patel and Shand were part of an operation that scouted clients in India, got them Canadian student visas, arranged transportation and smuggled them into the U.S., mostly through Washington state or Minnesota.
The U.S. Border Patrol arrested more than 14,000 Indians on the Canadian border in the year ending this Sept. 30. By 2022, the Pew Research Center estimates more than 725,000 Indians were living illegally in the U.S., behind only Mexicans and El Salvadorans.
Harshkumar Patel’s attorney, Thomas Leinenweber, told The Associated Press that his client came to America to escape poverty and build a better life for himself and now "stands unjustly accused of participating in this horrible crime. He has faith in the justice system of his adopted country and believes that the truth will come out at the trial.” Attorneys for Shand did not return messages.
Court documents filed by prosecutors show Patel was in the U.S. illegally after being refused a U.S. visa at least five times, and that he recruited Shand at a casino near their homes in Deltona, Florida, just north of Orlando.
Over a five-week period, court documents say, Patel and Shand often communicated about the bitter cold as they smuggled five groups of Indians over a quiet stretch of border. One night in December 2021, Shand messaged Patel that it was “cold as hell” while waiting to pick up one group, the documents say.
“They going to be alive when they get here?” he allegedly wrote.
During the last trip in January, Shand had messaged Patel, saying: “Make sure everyone is dressed for the blizzard conditions, please,” according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors say Shand told investigators that Patel paid him about $25,000 for the five trips.
Jagdish Patel grew up in Dingucha. He and his family lived with his parents. The couple were schoolteachers, according to local news reports.
Satveer Chaudhary is a Minneapolis-based immigration attorney who has helped migrants exploited by motel owners, many of them Gujaratis. He said smugglers and shady business interests promised many migrants an American dream that doesn’t exist when they arrive.
“The promises of the almighty dollar lead many people to take unwarranted risks with their own dignity, and as we’re finding out here, their own lives,” Chaudhary said.
The Edward J. Devitt U.S. Courthouse and Federal building is seen, where two men on trial face human smuggling charges, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024, in Fergus Falls, Minn. (AP Photo/Michael Goldberg)
In an undated image released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, shows items found in a migrant child’s backpack. (U.S. Attorney's Office via AP)
FILE - A border marker, between the United States and Canada is shown just outside of Emerson, Manitoba, on Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022. (John Woods/The Canadian Press via AP, File)
An aerial view of Dingucha village in Gandhinagar, India, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)
A statue of Monkey God Hanuman, installed as part of a religious celebrations, is seen in front of an entrance gate of Dingucha village in Gandhinagar, India, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)
House of Baldevbhai Patel, father of Jagdish Patel, who froze to death with his wife, son and daughter, in their bid to cross over to the United States from the Canada border, at Dingucha village in Gandhinagar district of Gujarat state, India, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)
An advertising poster pasted on a shop at Dingucha village in Gandhinagar, India, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. Poster reads in Gujarati "Make your dream of going abroad come true", on top and "Payment after visa". (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)
A woman carries firewood on her head at Dingucha village in Gandhinagar district of Gujarat state, India, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)
A car moves past a signage of Dingucha village in Gandhinagar, India, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)
In an image released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, shows how the migrants who survived the crossing were terribly inadequately dressed. (U.S. Attorney's Office via AP)
FILE - Road signage is posted just outside of Emerson, Manitoba, Jan. 20, 2022. (John Woods/The Canadian Press via AP, File)
Women walks past an entrance gate of Dingucha village in Gandhinagar, India, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)
FILE - Road signage is posted just outside of Emerson, Manitoba on Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022. (John Woods/The Canadian Press via AP)
