Former NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre found liable for corruption, cost gun rights group more than $5 million: jury

Posted 68 days ago

From WWW.FOXNEWS.COM

A Manhattan jury in the civil corruption case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James against the National Rifle Association (NRA) and its former CEO found the organization liable for financial mismanagement.

The jury determined that Wayne LaPierre's violations of his duties cost the NRA $5,400,000, but he had already paid roughly $1 million back to the organization.

LaPierre was ordered to repay the group $4,351,231.

The New York jury said that the NRA's CEO for three decades misspent millions of dollars of the group’s money on luxury personal purchases.

The decision came at the end of five days of deliberations.

James brought forth the lawsuit in 2020, and named the NRA, LaPierre, former CFO Wilson "Woody" Philips and general counsel John Frazer as defendants. The attorney general’s office argued the executives used millions in company funds on luxury personal purchases and trips, including hundreds of thousands of dollars on LaPierre’s trips to the Bahamas, according to the AG’s office.

The NRA, however, has long said the case was politically motivated by an attorney general who campaigned for the office by vowing to investigate and take on the group. James was elected to office in November 2018 and publicly slammed the NRA in the lead-up to her becoming New York’s chief law officer. While on the campaign trail, James called the group "an organ of deadly propaganda" and vowed to investigate whether the NRA could keep its charity status.

"The NRA is an organ of deadly propaganda masquerading as a charity for public good," James wrote in a campaign press release back in July 2018. "Its agenda is set by gun-makers who think arming teachers is a better idea than making it harder for kids to get military grade guns."

Weeks before her election, she described the NRA as "a terrorist organization" in comments to Ebony magazine, and "a criminal enterprise" in remarks to local New York media.

In August 2020, she filed a dissolution lawsuit aiming to break up the NRA over alleged corruption. A New York Supreme Court justice ultimately blocked James’ effort to dissolve the organization in a 2022 decision, saying the suit did not meet the requirements of ordering a "corporate death penalty" on the group. The judge did allow the suit against the NRA’s top officials to proceed. James accused officials at the NRA of "years of illegal self-dealing" that provided a "lavish lifestyle."... (Read more)






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