NRA CHIEF SAYS HE TOLD FEW ABOUT BANKRUPTCY
LaPierre testifies he hatched secret plan in bid to leave N.Y.
Wayne LaPierre, the chief executive of the National Rifle Association, said on Wednesday that he had kept his organization’s recent bankruptcy filing secret from almost all of its senior officials, including its general counsel, chief financial officer and top lobbyist. He did not inform most of the board.
LaPierre made the comments after taking the stand, virtually, at a trial in federal bankruptcy court in Dallas. Though the NRA is solvent, it filed for bankruptcy protection in January in an audacious bid to circumvent regulators in New York, where the NRA has been chartered for a century and a half.
New York Attorney General Letitia James had sued the association in August, trying to shut it down amid claims of mismanagement and corruption. She is also seeking tens of millions of dollars in misspent funds from LaPierre and three other current or former NRA leaders.
The nonprofit organization has been enmeshed in scandal for the last two years, with revelations of lavish spending by the NRA and its contractors — on Zegna suits and luxurious trips LaPierre took to places like Lake Como in Italy and the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas. Other benefits included chartered jets for him and his family and vacations on a contractor’s yachts, which were named Illusions and Grand Illusion.
The bankruptcy proceedings have become the latest referendum on LaPierre’s tenure at the gun rights group as it seeks to turn the battle with the New York attorney general into a fight over free speech rather than free perks.
“We filed this bankruptcy to look for a fair legal playing field, where NRA could prosper and grow in a fair environment, as opposed to what we believe had become a toxic, weaponized, politicized government in New York state,” LaPierre said in his testimony.
The association intends to use the bankruptcy to reincorporate in Texas. LaPierre kept the filing shrouded in secrecy, fearing leaks would jeopardize the plan.
But the attorney general’s office and the NRA’s largest creditor, its former advertising firm Ackerman McQueen, want the case dismissed — claiming that the filing, and the lack of notice to the board, was highly improper.
“The process Mr. LaPierre followed to file this bankruptcy case is itself a master class in bad faith and dishonest conduct,” said Monica Connell, an assistant attorney general.
The trial, part of the bankruptcy proceedings, began on Monday to determine whether the case would proceed.
The bankruptcy is a risky gambit for the NRA. LaPierre and his outside lawyer, William Brewer III, an architect of the filing, could lose control over the organization.
In one possible outcome, if the case is not dismissed, the judge could displace the current management by appointing a trustee to take over the NRA’s day-to-day operations.