Just over a year ago, New York Attorney General Letitia James — who had labeled the National Rifle Association a terrorist organization during her election campaign — filed suit against the National Rifle Association for alleged violations of New York law governing the management of non-profits chartered there. She asked the court to dissolve the NRA given the mismanagement and corruption she said her investigators had uncovered.
Yesterday, she updated her complaint agains the Associated and the named defendants (Wayne LaPierre, Wilson “Woody” Phillips, Joshua Powell, and John Frazer) laying out even more allegations of wrongdoing and willful disinterest in investigating the wrongdoing she alleged last year. You can read the entire document here.
Here’s the gist of her case . . .
Efforts to question or challenge LaPierre’s leadership are quashed or ignored. For example, LaPierre retaliated against the NRA President after personally lobbying him to take on the position. LaPierre withdrew his critical support after the President began to independently assess the governance of the NRA upon learning of complaints by whistleblowers, senior staff and donors.
Senior members of the NRA’s financial staff jointly made a formal whistleblower complaint to the Audit Committee of the NRA Board in 2018 itemizing numerous practices that abused NRA assets. Employees also complained about (former COO Joshua) Powell’s practices and behavior, which LaPierre, himself, described as “abusive.” But these complaints were never properly investigated or meaningfully addressed. Defendants failed to comply with, maintain, and ensure compliance with whistleblower policies consistent with New York law and permitted or personally retaliated against those who questioned their wrongdoing.
As a result of these failures, the NRA, at the direction of the Individual Defendants and with a series of failures of required oversight by its Board, has persistently engaged in illegal and unauthorized activities in the conduct and transaction of its business. Individual Defendants— in their roles as officers and directors—routinely circumvented internal controls; condoned or partook in expenditures that were an inappropriate and wasteful use of charitable assets; and concealed or misreported relevant information—made possible by the Board’s negligent oversight of management—rendering the NRA’s annual reports filed with the Attorney General materially false and misleading.
Defendants abdicated all responsibility for ensuring that the NRA’s assets were managed prudently and in good faith. The Attorney General commenced this action in August 2020. The original complaint provided the Defendants with detailed factual allegations about the NRA’s past and ongoing governance failures. Despite having this information, the Defendants and the Board failed to take appropriate action to investigate the allegations and failed to adequately remediate identified deficiencies.
Instead, in the twelve months since the commencement of this action, the Defendants failed to adequately investigate the allegations in the complaint, undertook an incomplete and opaque process that failed to reliably identify excess benefits received by NRA officers and directors, and failed to adequately instruct and oversee the work of the NRA’s new external audit firm.
Shortly after the NRA’s Chief Financial Officer attempted to verify representations in the NRA’s Form 990 for 2019, LaPierre fired him. And in January 2021, LaPierre, with the knowledge and approval of a small group of loyalists but without the knowledge or approval of the full Board, filed a petition under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in Texas in an attempt to evade this action.
LaPierre’s process for unilaterally authorizing the bankruptcy was found by the bankruptcy court to be “nothing less than shocking.” Following an expedited discovery schedule and trial that cost the NRA tens of millions of dollars in legal fees and other costs, the court concluded the bankruptcy petition was not filed in good faith and dismissed the proceeding.
The court also warned that, “should the NRA file a new bankruptcy case, [it] would immediately take up some of its concerns about disclosure, transparency, secrecy, conflicts of interest of officers and litigation counsel, and the unusual involvement of litigation counsel in the affairs of the NRA, which could cause the appointment of a trustee out of a concern that the NRA could not fulfill the fiduciary duty required by the Bankruptcy Code for a debtor in possession.”
As a result of these persistent violations of law by the Defendants, the Attorney General seeks a finding by this Court that the NRA is liable to be dissolved pursuant to (a) Notfor-Profit Corporation Law (“N-PCL”) § 1101(a)(2) based upon the NRA’s pattern of conducting its business in a persistently fraudulent or illegal manner, abusing its powers contrary to the public policy of New York and its tax exempt status, and failing to provide for the proper administration of its trust assets and institutional funds; and/or (b) N-PCL § 1102(a)(2) because directors or members in control of the NRA have looted or wasted the corporation assets, have operated the NRA solely for their personal benefit, or have otherwise acted in an illegal, oppressive or fraudulent manner.
The Attorney General requests that this Court determine, in the exercise of its discretion under Section 1109(b)(1) of the N-PCL, that the interest of the public and the members of the NRA supports a decision to dissolve the NRA.
— New York Attorney General Letitia James in an amended complaint agains the National Rifle Association filed yesterday.
Letitia, you’re singing to the chior on this, yet instead of going after those INDIVIDUALS you seem hell bent on the demise of the entire ORGANISATION. I guess you can throw untold time and money towards this, what with Cuomo being allowed to make a quick and quiet getaway.
Nothing wrong with what’s going on at the NRA. Every club uses hookers, sugarbabies, and fancy suits to maintain their leadership.
Seriously. What would be the point of being in club leadership if that wasn’t the case?
Zackly.
Why get into a position of power if you can’t abuse that power?
The New York Attorney General Letitia James needs to stfu and watch the news. By their unbelievable colossal incompetence Jim Crow Gun Control joe and the democRat Party have shown clearly what a terrorist organization looks like to the free world.
Impeach biden and flush the democRat Party. They are to freedom and prosperity what a drunk farting gasbag is to fine dining.
The NYAG is still on the dissolution of the NRA? It would be better to force out the offending members and appoint a trustee.
Good faith legal practice from a NY AG? You should have enough cents to know better.
Under this pretext, the city of new york should be dissolved
So should the Clinton Foundation. It’d sure be interesting to see what came out of a public investigation…but I’m not holding my breath.
“Clinton Foundation” 🤔
Here’s an idea. How about the CF gets around to sending some of the million they received in donations for the Haitian earthquake relief efforts in 2010.
Hey Bubba and Shillary. They just had another earthquake in Haiti, can you spare a dime?
As long as you are a white democrat, you can steal from and abuse black people.
But if you are a white conservative/republican who is helping blacks you will be attacked.
If this attack on the NRA rids us of WLP and his partners in crime it will at least have been of some benefit. When I think of all the tens of millions of dollars that should have been spent on gun ranges, court challenges to unjust gun laws, pro-SA legislative lobbying, well all I can say is WLP looks more like a traitor to the cause than what he claims to be.
If the NRA is dissolved by this legal attack I hope there are some well monied people out there with plans to buy up the assets and build a new NRA far, far, far, far away from New York State.
And just as far away from anyone in cahoots with Wayne.
“well monied people out there with plans to buy up the assets”
Yeah THATS a good plan. You all done planning Obidens Afganistan transition are you?
When Cuomo can make you look bad by exemplifying more resolve than you are capable of simply by resigning, it really shows just how low a bar can be set for LaPierre to still slime himself under. At this rate, mucus is scoring higher on the respectability scale than WLP… and yet folks still defend him. Pathetic, really.
True.
You need to get your OWN house in order before you even think about comin after ours “Leticia”!!
Uh, yeah, she is the NY AG who has brought down Cuomo. So she’s kind of already done exactly what you are asking for.
I don’t care what party she is in. She’s getting WLP away from the NRA cookie jar, already forced Cuomo out of office, so far it’s working out in our favor.
I get it, she wants to kill the NRA not just punish the traitors in power there, that’s going too far. If we could get The LaPierre Gang out without the NY AG I’d be all for it. As things stand, best we can hope for is having to rebuild the NRA once the dust settles.
“Uh, yeah, she is the NY AG who has brought down Cuomo. So she’s kind of already done exactly what you are asking for.”
This is laughable. By going after him with charges for being “touchy-feely”? 🤣
Cuomo will come back and run for a higher elected position once this plays out.
Reality here is LJ just wanted him out so she could run for his position. That’s why he was charged as such.
If LJ gave a hoot about “justice”, she would have charged Cuomo with the nursing home debacle, doctoring death numbers, and threatening anyone who didn’t follow his BS agenda and perpetuate his lies.
She kicked out a governor of her own party, really the head of the party. That’s not laughable, puts her career at risk.
The case is not over. The Albany Sheriff Office now has it as a criminal complaint and is pursuing it.
Imagine what she would find if she investigate her own office!
Is it too late for them to include LaPierre lying to the membership to get the Hughes Amendment passed against member wishes and soliciting donations on something they were never actually going to do, or does that just line up with the NYAG’s agenda too much for them to sue over?
I haven’t read all 193 pages since I’m on my phone, but, from what I’ve read, she isn’t wrong. The only issue I have is with the dissolution of the NRA, instead of prosecuting, fining, and suing the bad actors and negligent board members that failed in their fiduciary duties. A trustee needs to be appointed, the Board and executives kicked out, and new elections held. WLP didn’t found the NRA and then use it for his benefit, which would be a good reason to dissolve a fraudulently created organization. Even with all the graft, corruption, self-dealing, and nepotism, most of the money did go to it’s intended purposes of the members and donors.
Page 113 about Dissident 1 opened my eyes. D1 is Ollie North. WLP recruited Ollie to be President, but Ollie would lose his job hosting “American Heroes” for Fox News. The NRA had Ackerman McQueen pick up American Heroes as part of NRA TV, including a 3-year $7M contract for Oliie, and then Ollie was willing to become President. Once installed as President, Ollie took his job seriously instead of just doing a few photo ops and speeches. He questioned why Josh Powell was being paid $900k and sexually harassing women, or Tyler Schropp was making $700k. What really did him in was questioning why Bill Brewer was being paid $2M/month for legal fees that didn’t seem to have been approved through proper channels. That was opening the closets where Wayne hid his skeletons. There was even a move to pay Brewer more for “compliance review,” which is paying the fox to guard the hen house. As Ollie started asking for audits, WLP attacked Ollie for conflict of interest for the AMcQ contract that WLP arranged. WLP denied knowing about the contract, which, if true, would prove WLP’s incompetence for not knowing about an expenditure of tens of millions when the full production cost of the show and AMcQ’s fees are added in. As an aside, Brewer seems to have been chosen via nepotism since he’s in laws with AMcQ execs.
Brewer made another $10M for the ridiculous bankruptcy attempt, which failed because he had no experience. He continues to make bank advising WLP how to fight James instead of hiring an experienced lawyer. Brewer has a conflict of interest since he should be an indicted co-conspirator. I can’t think of a reason why WLP is so attached to Brewer, unless he’s laundering questionable transactions through Brewer or is getting other kickbacks.
She needs to stop trying to dissolve the NRA and help us get rid of LaPierre & Co.
She should individually indict LaPierre & Co. for their criminality and get a court order to force the NRA board to hold an election, under court supervision, with all voting member of the NRA (us) being able to vote for an all-new board and leadership.
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