After it was slapped with a lawsuit brought by the New York attorney general alleging fraud and abuse, the National Rifle Association filed for bankruptcy in federal court in Dallas in a bid to reorganize and move to Texas.
It was a brazen effort to try to evade New York officials enforcing the laws that govern nonprofits, and it backfired. Not only did the judge call out the NRA for its duplicitous use of bankruptcy laws, but testimony during the trial reinforced the claims made by New York officials of an organization riven by corruption and mismanagement.
Testimony during the bankruptcy case showed details of the organization’s tax-exempt funds used for wedding expenses, private jet travel and exotic getaways. Wayne LaPierre’s private travel consultant testified that he instructed her to alter travel invoices for private jets so as to hide their true destinations.
LaPierre testified he didn’t know how his former chief financial officer had received a $360,000-a-year consulting contract after leaving under a cloud, and he admitted to trips on a luxury yacht belonging to an NRA vendor—a conflict of interest he did not disclose.
That LaPierre kept the bankruptcy filing secret from other NRA officials, including its general counsel, was, the judge wrote, “nothing less than shocking.” The NRA under LaPierre’s leadership proved to be, as the judge said, an organization in which “the rot runs deep.” Whether it can be reformed or should be dissolved will be up to the court in New York, but it’s good that there will be a long-overdue reckoning.