• @MegaUltraChicken
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    291 month ago

    Yeah the only party here that should have any say whatsoever is the Sandy Hook families. If they want to forgo what Jones owes them in order to give the sale to The Onion that should 100% be their call. They OWN Jones’ shit.

    • @halcyoncmdr
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      151 month ago

      The issue is what the valuation of the seized assets are. The asset seizure is only to fulfill the monetary debt since he cannot pay the entire amount in cash. If he could pay it in full, there would be no seizure (unless the seizure itself was a separate part of the judgement). The valuation is essentially what someone is willing to pay for it, and in this case, there are only 2 bidders to value it.

      The Onion’s bid was not the highest bid, but does have the backing of the family. Jones on the other hand also has a right for the valuation to be as correct as possible to fulfill his debt. This type of situation isn’t particularly unique, and it’s not exactly new.

      The Judge could end up deciding that The Onion’s bid goes through due to family backing since the debt is to them and the asset being sold is directly relevant to the judgement, but the valuation of the opposing bid is counted against the debt, which is the only thing Jones is really entitled to here.

      • @lily33@lemm.ee
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        241 month ago

        My impression from the article was, The Onion bid contained both a monetary sum, and partial debt relief. The total value then - the sum + the debt relief - was higher, and that’s how it won. So, it wasn’t just the victims’ backing weighing in, they actually put money on it.

        • @NightwingdragonOP
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          91 month ago

          You are correct. It’s just that because the details of the bids are sealed, it appears on the surface that the Onion bid was too low relative to the value of the asset and the competitive bid. The hearing is to clear that misconception up; The onion bid + incentives thrown in (debt relief + benefits to other creditors) actually brings the overall value of the bid to above the value of the competing bid, and possibly of Infowars itself. This means that not only is the Onion bid the actual winning bid, the bid is of greater financial benefit to not only the sandy hook families, but to Jones’ creditors and ultimately Jones himself.

          This is normally routine, but given all of the players involved, it just opens the door to a lot of fuckery. Under normal circumstances, a hearing like this wouldn’t even be noteworthy, much less newsworthy.

      • @Deceptichum@quokk.au
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        141 month ago

        The Onions bid does not just have the backing of the Sandy Hooks families, those same families agreed to defer their payments until after Jones has paid his other debts as part of the Onions bid.

      • @NightwingdragonOP
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        21 month ago

        The valuation is essentially what someone is willing to pay for it, and in this case, there are only 2 bidders to value it.

        Nitpick: This is probably the case 99% of the time, but there is the outside possibility that there were some restrictions on the auction that we do not know about that caused potential bidders to shy away, therefore lowering the perceived value of the assets artificially.