The National Rifle Association has been complicit in the senseless murder of countless Americans.
As it turns out, their leaders appear to have been stealing millions from its members as well.
New York State Attorney General Letitia James announced Thursday morning that her office has filed a civil lawsuit against the NRA, alleging its top brass has pilfered the organization’s accounts in order to use private jets to go on lavish vacations and eat expensive meals at fancy restaurants.
James accused Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre, the national face of the organization, as well as three others of bleeding more than $64 million from the non-profit organization over a three-year period.
“For these years of fraud and misconduct, we are seeking an order to dissolve the NRA in its entirety,” James said.
The 169-page complaint, the result of an 18-month investigation, also accuses the organization of making false and misleading disclosures to the state and the Internal Revenue Service. James is looking for full restitution from the four executives involved in the scheme.
LaPierre, former Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer Wilson “Woody” Phillips, former Chief of Staff and Executive Director of Operations Joshua Powell and Corporate Secretary and General Counsel John Frazier, “instituted a culture of self-dealing, mismanagement and negligent oversight that was illegal, oppressive and fraudulent,” James said.
James called LaPierre the central figure behind the scheme and detailed a litany of malfeasance. LaPierre visited the Bahamas by private air charter eight times in a three-year span at a cost of $500,000, he went on African safaris, and he spent $3.6 million on travel-agent services, all on the NRA’s dime. He was also reimbursed for golf-club membership fees, among other things, she said.
“Mr. LaPierre exploited the operation for his and his family’s financial benefit, and the benefit of a close circle of NRA staff, board members and vendors,” James said Thursday morning.
“We found that the NRA fostered a culture of non-compliance and disregard for internal controls that led to the waste and loss of millions in assets and contributed to the NRA’s current deteriorated financial state,” James announced. “Not only were the NRA’s internal policies repeatedly not followed, but they were blatantly ignored by senior leaders.”
Aside from the alleged financial malfeasance, this is an organization that has done incredible damage to our society. The NRA used to be an organization dedicated to gun safety. Not anymore.
Today’s NRA has one goal. Sell as many firearms to as many people as possible. The result has been a proliferation of mass shootings at schools, churches, synagogues, mosques, movie theaters, malls and pretty much every other place Americans congregate.
Meanwhile, the NRA has fiercely opposed and resisted any attempts at common-sense gun reform that would undoubtedly save Americans’ lives and create a safer society.
LaPierre has been essential in spreading the false narrative that the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is for there to be a good guy with a gun. Now, we know he’s been doing it while stealing all the money from his membership. Turns out, he’s not such a good guy.
Considering how much the NRA disrespects the health and safety of everyday Americans, it should come as no surprise that the organization’s leadership has as much disdain for its members’ hard-earned money. The NRA is nothing more than a criminal organization. Shut them down.