New York Attorney General Letitia James announced this morning a state lawsuit demanding the dissolution of the National Rifle Association (NRA) for "decades" of illegal activity while "top executives funneled millions into their own pockets." Singled out is longtime NRA Chief Executive Wayne LaPierre, long accused of running the once-powerful pro-gun group as personal profit center.
The lawsuit accuses top NRA officials of fraudulently making off with $63 million of the alleged nonprofit's funds in the period between 2015 and 2018 alone.
The lawsuit centers around LaPierre's own behavior, charging he "hired and retained individuals in senior positions" who would "enable him to control the organization" despite having no related skills or experience. LaPierre and his handpicked lieutenants then "regularly ignored, overrode or otherwise violated" NRA bylaws and procedures to divert assets to "insiders and favored vendors." It charges LaPierre and his executives with violating IRS rules in order to hide NRA payments to executives for personal expenses, such as entertainment and travel, including $500,000 in private air charter expenses to the Bahamas by LaPierre and family for "at least eight" personal vacations.
The NRA has as a result "persistently engaged in illegal and unauthorized activities," the lawsuit charges, and should therefore be "dissolved" in accordance with applicable nonprofit law. For LaPierre's siphoning off of funds, the lawsuit also demands that he and the other executives named in the suit be removed from their positions and required to repay misused funds and resulting penalties.
LaPierre's alleged pilfering of NRA funds for personal expenses has been the subject of numerous public exposures, even as the NRA itself faces dire financial straits. Whether a court will find the NRA's illegal acts to indeed be so egregious as to require dissolution as an entity remains to be seen.