Gawker founder Nick Denton to file for personal bankruptcy

Gawker founde🐠r Nick Denton filed for personal bankruptcy Monday, listing $10 million to $50 million in asse🧸ts and $100 million to $500 million in debts.

The filing comes after Denton exhausted appeals to prevent Hulk Hogan from collecting on a $140 million invasion of privacy award handed down by a Flori𝓡da jury in March.

Denton had asked for repeated reprieves becauꦏse h𒈔e is appealing the verdict.

Denton’s largest creditor is Hulk Hogan. The internet entrepreneur owes the WWE champ $125 million on a $140 million jury award for posting a tape of the wrestler having sex with his best friend’s wife.

The remaining $15 million is owed by Gawker.

“On this bitter day for me, I am consoled by the fact that my colleagues will soon be freed from this tech billionaire🔯’s vendetta,” Denton tweeted Monday.

Denton was referring to PayPal founder Peter Thiel, who secretly fundꦛed Hogan’s lawsuit against Gawker. Thiel had a persoꩲnal vendetta against Denton after Gawker outed him as gay in 2007.

The personal bankruptcy, filed in Manhattan federal court Monday, also lists a potential $145 million in more payout🐟s on pending l෴awsuits against Denton.

The suits include a $100 million defamation claim by Chicago lawyer Meanith Huon, another $🍒35 million defamation suit by actress Fran Drescher’s husband Shiva Ayyadurai, and a third $10 million case by journalist Ashley Terrill.

Other items in♏ the bankruptcy filing are a $11.5 million loan d🅺ue to Silicon Valley Bank.

The filing reveals that Denton has been struggling to stay afloat in re💛cent months.

Den🌜ton took out a $50,000 loan against hi𝓡s company 401(K), is carrying $18,000 in credit card debt and hasn’t paid a $1,200 Consolidated Edison bill or a $120 Time Warner cable charge.

Court papers show that Denton faile𒁏d to rent out his Soho apartment, which he recently listed for $15,000 a month. The pad is Denton only other asset aside from his 30 per⭕cent share in Gawker.

𓆉The personal bankruptcy filing comes just weeks after Denton filed fౠor bankruptcy on behalf of Gawker. The same judge, Stuart Bernstein, will be handling both cases.

The gossip web♔site is scheduled to💜 be sold at an auction later this month.

“Gawker Media Group’s resilient brands and people w﷽ill thrive under new ownership, when the sale closes in the next few weeks,” Denton tweeted Monday.

David Houston, H🐽ogan’s lawyer said the filing sp♍elled victory for his client.

“Following a lengthy trial, a jury verdict and much legal maneuvering, the time has come for Nick Denton to accept responsibility for the decisions he made and the rewards he reaped based on the suffering and humiliation
of others,” Houston said.

“Mr. Denton has spent vast amounts of time and money attempting to dodge his responsibility and a judge has subsequently determined that he misled the court in these efforts. The appellate court, in which he has guaranteed
victory over Mr. Bollea, is not the puppet he thought it would be,” Houston said, calling Hogan by his legal name Terry Bollea.

“His bankruptcy has nothing to do with who paid Mr. Bollea’s legal bills, and everything to do with Denton’s own choices and accountability. If even one person has been spared the humiliation that Mr. Bollea suffered, this is a victory,” Houston said.