A Connecticut jury awarded nearly $1 billion in damages Wednesday to Sandy Hook families in their defamation suit against far-right talk show host Alex Jones.
It begs the question: How much is Jones worth?
In August, he claimed in testimony – in a suit brought against him in Texas – that a jury award of just $2 million would destroy him financially.
However, in that same case, economist Bernard Pettingill, Jr. estimated Jones has a net worth of between $135 million and $270 million.
Pettingill, Jr., who examined several years of records for Jones and Infowars’ parent Free Speech Systems, said the talk show host used a series of shell companies to hide his money.
Jones used two large loans to make it appear he was broke when in fact he was not, Pettingill, Jr. testified in August.
“Alex Jones knows where the money is, he knows where that money went and he knows that he is going to eventually benefit by that money,” Pettingill, Jr. said.
After one of the jurors asked about the difference between Jones’ money and his company’s money, Pettingill, Jr. said “you cannot separate Alex Jones from the companies. He is the companies.”
Jones “monetized his shtick,” he added, even suggesting that Jones could teach a college course about his techniques.
