Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has received Bitcoin donations, but will the victims of his defamation get their hands on the money? Dozens of white supremacist gang members have been arrested in Southern California, and neo-Nazis remain on the run from the messaging app Telegram.
This week is extremism week.
Alex Jones receives Bitcoin donation
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has been trying to maintain his lavish lifestyle since losing a high-profile defamation case and being ordered to pay more than $1 billion in damages to his victims. Researchers at the Southern Poverty Law Center, who have been closely monitoring Jones’ Bitcoin wallet, noticed a large donation last week. Will Jones be able to keep the money?
In 2022, Jones was ordered to pay nearly $1.5 billion in a judgment to the families of children killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre. A series of court decisions ordered the payments after Jones spread false conspiracy theories about the children’s deaths. But by this time last year, Jones had not paid his victims a penny, even though he was spending nearly $100,000 a month on himself. Megan Squire, SPLC’s deputy director of data analysis, noticed a Bitcoin donation to Jones this week. It’s worth about $64,000. Squire told USA TODAY that the size of the donation was significant. Most donations range from a few dollars to about $100 worth of Bitcoin. Squire doesn’t know who is responsible for the Bitcoin donation, only that it came from someone holding dozens of dollars. Millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrencies. “We don’t know who they are, but they are whales and they sent Mr. Jones several other small donations all in 2021,” Squire told USA TODAY. spoke. Last week, a bankruptcy judge in Houston ordered Mr. Jones to auction off his assets. Infowars’ media platforms and assets will raise funds to pay his sentence. Sales will begin next month.
It is unclear whether last week’s donations will be subject to bankruptcy proceedings and ultimately go to the people Jones defamed, but an attorney representing Jones’ victims declined to comment on the donations. Jones did not respond to requests for comment.
Giant neo-Nazi bust in Southern California
This week, dozens of people believed to be members of white supremacist gangs in the Los Angeles area were arrested as part of a sweep by federal law enforcement. The 68 alleged gang members have been charged with extortion, gun trafficking, drug trafficking and financial fraud.
Those arrested are believed to be members of the Pecker Woods, a white supremacist street gang operating in California that is derived from the prison system. During the investigation, law enforcement seized a large quantity of illegal firearms and dozens of pounds of fentanyl, methamphetamine, and heroin. , according to a federal indictment.
“The Peckerwoods family’s violent white supremacist ideology and widespread criminal behavior pose a grave threat to our community,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said in a statement. “The Pecker Woods family has become a destructive force, involved in everything from drug trafficking to firearms crimes, identity theft, coronavirus fraud, and through alliances with neo-Nazi prison gangs.”
Neo-Nazis remain on the run Telegram
Since social media platform Telegram founder Pavel Durov was arrested in France in August, far-right users of encrypted messaging services have continued to abandon them in search of new havens. A new report from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a think tank that studies global extremism and disinformation, shows that this trend continues.
The ISD report, released Friday, said neo-Nazi groups have been using a new, unnamed platform in recent days “chosen for its enhanced privacy features and lack of user-specific identifiers, such as user IDs.” It details how the transition is being made. One such group already has about 1,000 members on the new platform, according to ISD researcher Stephen Lai. Rai tracked more than 30 neo-Nazi and “accelerationist” groups to the new platform. Accelerationism is a white supremacist movement that aims to incite racial wars and subsequent dystopias and bring about a new world order based on race.
This week’s stats: 2
That’s how many bridges in Pittsburgh were hung with banners displaying Nazi symbols last Saturday. An investigation into this incident is ongoing.
