(Photo
by
Drew
Angerer/Getty
Images)
“We
always
knew
the
guys
who
currently
run
InfoWars
were
going
to
take
this
badly
and
use
the
loss
to
fundraise
off
of
it,
and
they
did
not
disappoint,”
the
Onion’s
CEO
Ben
Collins
posted
on
Bluesky
last
week,
adding
that
“Buying
this
site
was
always
going
to
be
fun
later
on,
but
annoying
right
away.”
And
boy
was
he
ever
right!
Last
week
Chapter
7
bankruptcy
trustee
Christopher
Murray
announced
that
Global
Tetrahedron,
parent
company
of
The
Onion,
was
the
winning
bidder
in
the
auction
of
Free
Speech
Systems,
Alex
Jones’s
corporate
firehose
of
hate.
The
runner-up
bidder
was
a
company
called
First
United
American
Companies,
LLC,
which
would
appear
to
be
associated
with
one
of
FSS’s
suppliers.
FUAC’s
attorney
Walter
Cicack
previously
represented
Charlie
Cicack
in
this
case,
and
Charlie
is
described
by
the
New
York
Times
as
“an
entrepreneur
who
had
sold
products
through
Free
Speech
Systems
in
the
past”
and
then
“claimed
ignorance
of
the
relationship
and
then
deleted
references
to
Infowars
from
his
social
media
accounts”
when
the
paper
contacted
him.
At
an
emergency
status
conference
on
Thursday,
Walter
Cicack
protested
that
Murray,
the
trustee,
had
illegally
changed
the
terms
of
the
auction
and
colluded
with
the
Sandy
Hook
families
to
rig
the
auction
in
favor
of
a
party
who
put
less
cash
on
the
table.
And
US
Bankruptcy
Judge
Christopher
Lopez
appeared
sympathetic,
despite
Murray’s
protests
that
he’d
done
what
was
in
the
best
interests
of
all
the
creditors.
This
morning,
Cicack
filed
an
emergency
motion
to
disqualify
The
Onion’s
bid
on
the
theory
that
Murray
violated
the
court’s
winddown
order
authorizing
the
sale.
It
was
chock
full
of
highly
inflammatory
claims
that
Murray
acted
“in
complete
bad
faith
and
with
improper
collusion
with
the
Connecticut
Families.”
Within
an
hour,
Murray
docketed
a
two-page
preliminary
response
denying
the
“barrage
of
baseless
allegations,
selective
quoting
and
half-truths
in
FUAC’s
recent
filings”
and
“reserv[ing]
all
rights,
including
those
under
Federal
Rule
of
Civil
Procedure
11
and
Federal
Rule
of
Bankruptcy
Procedure
9011
regarding
the
duties
of
attorneys
who
sign
their
names
to
pleadings
in
this
Court.”
Then
this
afternoon,
Murray
filed
an expedited
motion
to
ratify
the
sale
making
clear
why
he
chose
The
Onion’s
bid,
even
though
it
was
for
less
cash
upfront.
Thanks
to
the
numerous
exhibits,
the
sealed
auction
negotiations
have
now
been
functionally
unsealed
(with
the
exception
of
the
identity
of
FUAC
and
its
funders).
FUAC’s
initial
bid
was
$1.2
million,
and
The
Onion’s
was
$1
million.
But
The
Onion’s
bid
included
a
Distributable
Proceeds
Waiver
by
the
Connecticut
plaintiffs
in
favor
of
the
Texas
plaintiffs
addressing
a
rift
between
the
two
sets
of
Sandy
Hook
parents
that
opened
up
when
FSS
exited
Chapter
11
proceedings.
In
brief,
the
Connecticut
plaintiffs
have
a
$1.4
billion
judgment;
and
the
Texas
plaintiffs
have
a
$50
million
judgment.
And
so,
under
a
pro
rata
distribution
of
assets,
the
Texas
plaintiffs
are
going
to
get
just
three
percent
of
the
payout.
And
so,
to
address
this
disparity,
while
simultaneously
ensuring
that
Jones
doesn’t
get
to
keep
the
company,
the
Connecticut
plaintiffs
agreed
to
disclaim
as
much
of
the
sale
proceeds
as
necessary
to
make
the
Texas
plaintiffs
$100,000
better
off
than
they
would
be
under
the
second-place
bid.
To
the
extent
an
alternative
Qualified
Bid
is
submitted
by
a
third
party
that
consists
of
cash
consideration
in
a
higher
amount
than
the
Purchase
Price
set
forth
herein,
the
Connecticut
Families
commit
to
forego
receipt
of
the
Distributable
Proceeds
Waiver
Amount
(as
defined
herein),
and
shall
assign
the
Distributable
Proceeds
Waiver
Amount
to
the
Chapter
7
Trustee
for
the
benefit
of
all
other
unsecured
creditors
of
FSS.
The
waiver
described
in
this
section
(the
“Distributable
Proceeds
Waiver”)
is
intended
to
enhance
the
terms
of
this
Bid,
such
that
creditors
other
than
the
Connecticut
Families
will
receive
greater
cash
recovery
pursuant
to
this
Bid
than
they
would
under
an
alternative
Qualified
Bid,
notwithstanding
a
higher
cash
purchase
price.
Murray
went
back
to
both
FUAC
and
The
Onion
and
asked
them
to
submit
their
best
and
final
offers,
as
was
within
his
discretion
according
to
the
plain
language
of
Judge
Lopez’s
order
authorizing
the
sale.
Notably,
FUAC
did
not
object
at
the
time
to
the
change
in
procedures.
The
submissions
were
to
include
bids
on
multiple
different
lots,
in
varying
combinations,
since
the
assets
include
Infowars’
IP,
the
Infowars
store,
various
domain
names,
and
the
FSS’s
tangible
personal
property.
This
appears
to
have
been
an
effort
to
extract
maximum
value
for
creditors
by
selling
the
IP
to
The
Onion,
and
the
store,
which
The
Onion
didn’t
care
much
about,
to
FUAC.
FUAC
came
back
with
a
bid
for
$3.5
million.
The
Onion’s
bid
was
$1.75
million.
But
it
was
accompanied
by
a
promise
from
the
Connecticut
families
to
disclaim
as
much
of
the
purchase
price
as
necessary
to
put
the
Texas
families
in
a
better
position
than
they
would
have
been
with
the
FUAC
deal,
even
if
FUAC
raised
its
offer
to
$7
million.
To
be
clear,
the
Connecticut
plaintiffs
calculated
this
by
grossing
the
share
of
all
other
creditors
up
to
25
percent.
In
reality,
everyone
else’s
claims
against
the
Jones
estate
are
just
a
rounding
error
compared
to
the
$1.4
billion
plus
post-judgment
interest
the
Connecticut
plaintiffs
entitled
to.
And,
despite
Cicack’s
suggestion
that
The
Onion
was
bidding
with
“monopoly
money,”
the
Sandy
Hook
parents
will
get
a
continuing
share
of
the
ad
revenue
post-sale.
So
Murray,
exercising
his
broad
discretion
under
the
winddown
order
and
the
business
judgment
rule,
chose
the
offer
that
maximized
value
to
the
creditors,
even
though
it
was
not
the
deal
that
put
the
most
cash
on
the
table
up
front.
Presumably
he
will
respond
to
Cicack’s
attack
in
short
order.
Wonder
if
we’ll
find
out
exactly
which
goblinlover
is
behind
that
FUAC
bid
…
Alexander
E.
Jones
and
Official
Committee
Of
Unsecured
Creditors [Docket
via
Court
Listener]
Liz
Dye lives
in
Baltimore
where
she
produces
the
Law
and
Chaos substack and podcast.