‘Gone Bankrupt!’ Ammon Bundy declares chapter — however can he keep away from paying St. Luke’s?

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Within the yr after a jury ordered far-right activist Ammon Bundy to pay hundreds of thousands for defaming St. Luke’s staff, Bundy misplaced his Emmett dwelling, went into hiding and moved to Utah.

Now, he’s declaring chapter, in response to court docket paperwork filed by Bundy on Wednesday.

“At this time, just some hours in the past, I filed chapter,” Bundy mentioned in a stay YouTube video posted Wednesday night titled “Gone Bankrupt!”

Bundy mentioned the one debt he owes is $53 million to St. Luke’s Well being System. In July 2023, an Ada County jury ordered Bundy, his affiliate Diego Rodriguez and their entities to pay $52.5 million in damages for defaming St. Luke’s and a few of its staff.

“I’ve been excellent with my funds my whole life,” Bundy mentioned within the video. “Chapter is one thing that’s utterly in opposition to my nature. However on this circumstance, I mainly have actually no selection.”

The defamation case started after Bundy and Rodriguez led protests at St. Luke’s hospitals in Meridian and downtown Boise in March 2022 over a baby welfare case involving Rodriguez’s 10-month-old grandchild.

The defendants had been discovered to have posted quite a few lies on-line in regards to the hospital system, its well being professionals and the rationale the infant was taken into custody.

In Bundy’s telling in Wednesday’s video, he’s “one among many political enemies” who’ve been financially hit for political causes. Others listed by Bundy included former President Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

Bundy didn’t reply to the Idaho Statesman’s request for remark.

‘The Lord desires me to go bankrupt’

Bundy mentioned he started fascinated about chapter final yr when legislation enforcement arrested him at his son’s highschool soccer banquet.

“I used to be simply actually bothered by the entire thing, how they did it,” Bundy mentioned within the video. “And it was simply horrible that they did it there after which and all of that. After which I’m pondering, ‘Properly, how am I ever going to be free from this?’ ”

He mentioned the concept of chapter “got here into (his) thoughts” in jail and “stuffed (him) with peace.” He’s submitting chapter “out of obedience to the Lord,” Bundy mentioned.

Bundy mentioned he hopes a chapter choose will discharge his debt. An individual can’t be legally required to pay any money owed discharged in court docket, in response to the U.S. Courts website.

“I do know the Lord desires me to go bankrupt,” Bundy mentioned. “And I believe he desires to provide the chapter court docket the prospect to rectify this.”

Bundy might face vital authorized hurdles

Nevertheless, chapter legal guidelines make it tough for candidates to get court docket fines discharged. Debt gained via “willful and malicious harm by the debtor to a different entity” can’t be discharged, in accordance to federal law.

Bruce Markell, a chapter legislation professor on the Northwestern Pritzker Faculty of Legislation and former federal chapter choose, pointed towards the high-profile case of radio host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who was discovered responsible of defamation associated to his lies in regards to the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary Faculty bloodbath. Jones filed for chapter after the lawsuit, however a choose dominated that the majority of his money owed couldn’t be discharged as a result of they had been incurred via willful and malicious harm.

“Quite a lot of these people who find themselves submitting chapter are very stunned when issues don’t go their approach,” Markell mentioned. “I believe Bundy made a miscalculation. Or he is aware of what he’s doing, and he is aware of this may purchase him a pair months earlier than the court docket will get round to dismissing the case.”

In his Chapter 7 chapter filings, Bundy listed his new deal with in New Concord, Utah, and his monetary counselor as “Stand Certain Credit score Counseling a/ok/a Biblical Monetary Ideas” out of Alabama.

The quantity of Bundy’s monetary holdings has lengthy been a source of contention within the authorized circumstances surrounding him. St. Luke’s beforehand accused Bundy of hiding property. Within the chapter submitting, Bundy outlined his earnings and property.

Bundy mentioned he makes $11,100 per thirty days ($133,200 yearly) and spends $10,616 every month. He listed $1,573,300 in property, most of which he mentioned are in actual property. He gave $24,000 to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints between 2022 and 2024, in response to his submitting.

One part requested Bundy if he had offered any property. Bundy mentioned he sold his house, valued at $1.4 million, to his pal Aaron Welling “to attempt to keep away from shedding our dwelling to St. Luke’s Well being System executives.”

Erik Stidham, an lawyer representing St. Luke’s and the defamation plaintiffs, instructed the Statesman that “proof conflicts with representations made in Bundy’s chapter filings and that the chapter proceedings ought to help St. Luke’s efforts to establish any property Bundy could also be hiding.”

“As mirrored in numerous filings and court docket orders entered within the yr following the decision, Mr. Bundy was, the truth is, a multi-millionaire on the time of the decision,” Stidham instructed the Statesman by electronic mail. “Opposite to representations made by Mr. Bundy to his followers and the general public, Mr. Bundy was not a person of restricted means.”

Hiding property whereas looking for chapter is against the law, Markell mentioned.

“There are issues referred to as chapter crimes, and, when he submits disclosures to the courts underneath penalty of perjury, if he’s discovered to knowingly and fraudulently file false statements or didn’t embrace issues, then he might be prosecuted for a chapter crime, which is a felony,” Markell mentioned.

Stidham mentioned St. Luke’s plans to work throughout the chapter course of to deal with Bundy’s “representations about his wealth and oppose the discharge of a judgment primarily based on findings that Mr. Bundy lied and deliberately harmed St. Luke’s and the opposite plaintiffs with a purpose to get publicity and cash.”