Hof us after the National Rifle Association was hit on Thursday by a lawsuit filed by New York’s attorney general, who tried to dissolve the gun lobby over allegations that millions of dollars were handed over to pay for her lavish lifestyle. leaders, NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre, back.
In typical pugnacious fashion, LaPierre filed his own counter-case against the Attorney General, Letitia James. In a call to NRA members, he accused them of ‘their arming’ of their regulations and ‘their politicians’ an ‘insult to democracy and freedom’.
If LaPierre, 70, hopes to spark a new culture war between the hyper-conservative group he leads and one of New York’s top Democrats, it’s not clear the strategy will work this time around. For nearly 30 years, LaPierre has been using the same aggressive tactics to build the NRA into the world’s largest and most feared gun advocacy group, with 5 million members, sending it in an increasingly partisan direction that has culminated in its enthusiastic support for Donald Trump.
But concerns about the NRA’s inner workings are not limited to prosecutors in New York’s progressive outpost. Within the organization itself, there is a cause for dissatisfaction related to the proven misuse of millions of dollars by the association and its charitable arm, the NRA Foundation.
Speaking to the Guardian of Nashville, Tennessee, one of the NRA’s top donors was unabashed in his criticism of LaPierre and the 76 members of the NRA board he accused of collectively turning a blind eye to alleged financial misconduct.
“It makes me sad and depressed,” Dave Dell’Aquila said shortly after the trial in New York. ‘And lulk. Extremely angry. I’m angry that a 152-year-old historic institution under Wayne LaPierre and his management team has been taken down while the board of directors leaves this. “
If LaPierre asked to try to push Dell’Aquila into the same gun-hating, freedomless pigeonhole on which he hugged Letitia James, he would have a tough job. It’s not just that the former tech company boss is a lifelong member of the NRA and has donated more than $ 100,000 to continue its core mission.
It’s been that Dell’Aquila has guns and hunting in his blood since he first grew up with the 10-year-old firearms defect in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
There is an indication as to which side of the second amendment is entitled to bear arms debate that he is sitting right there in his front room. It is dominated by a revamped 400 lb black bear that he shot a few years ago in Canada.
He is currently expecting a shipment of 15 animal trophies from a recent hunting trip in Africa, including heads of saber and eland elephants. “I am a conservative honest supporter of the Second Amendment. “I strongly believe that you have the right to firearms and to protect yourself from dictatorships and monarchies,” he said.
And so the website Dell’Aquila created, retirelapierre.com, can not easily be cast as the work of a socialist ideologue to get your guns – a favorite talking point of LaPierre’s.
Similarly, the process of class action Dell’Aquila, which in August 2019 a federal court in Tennessee initiated, carries the weight of an insider.
The suit, personally brought against LaPierre and the NRA and its foundation, is strikingly similar to New York’s action. It recalls how Dell’Aquila donated $ 100,000 to the organization and thought it would go toward promoting shooting and hunting, gun safety, wildlife conservation and the right to gun ownership in the US.
It then tells how he discovered that far money did not go to these core goals, his money presumably contributed to the luxury habits of LaPierre and other top NRA executives. Through the 2018 investigation conducted by the then president of the NRA, Oliver North of Irangate fame, Dell’Aquila learned from accusations that for several years “LaPierre had received hundreds of thousands of dollars in clothing, private jet travel and other benefits”.
In particular, it claims that Dell’Aquila’s suit, $ 243,644, was spent on “luxury travel for LaPierre to the Bahamas; Palm Beach; Los Angeles; Reno, Nevada; Budapest, Hungary; and Italy.” The court document cites even more spending $ 274,695 at a Beverly Hills clothing store on packages for LaPierre – none of which were declared under IRS tax returns.
A similar theme is addressed by the New York package. It accuses LaPierre and three members of its top team of creating a “culture of self-handling, mismanagement and negligent supervision at the NRA that was illegal, oppressive and fraudulent”.
Such financial mismanagement contributed to total losses for the NRA of a staggering $ 64 million, prosecutors claim. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in charity money went on private jet trips for LaPierre and his family, at least eight trips to the Bahamas over three years costing more than $ 500,000, and using a 107ft yacht owned by an NRA seller.
The CEO apparently also went on an African safari, all paid expenses, and spent nearly $ 4 million on luxury limousines in the past two years alone. The suit says he negotiated without the council’s approval on a post-employment contract in which the NRA would pay him $ 1m a year after his retirement or retirement – a package worth $ 17 million.
In its counter-case, the NRA claims that New York’s attorney general sought to “silence the NRA’s advocacy and neutralize it as an opposing political force.” In his letter to NRA members following the release of the legal action, LaPierre said: “The NRA is well regulated, financially solvable and committed to good governance.”
In response to Dell’Aquila’s lawsuit, the NRA has claimed that he as a member of the group has no state to prosecute and has asked a federal judge to dismiss the case. A statement on the motion could come every day.
But for now, there’s no stopping Dell’Aquila. He is apoplexy above all about the contract to employment, and contrasts the pride against the meager income of many of the NRA’s members.
“I mean, how did Wayne get a $ 17 million contract after he left the NRA? On top of the near $ 2 million he earns a year with supplies and everything like that? Two million dollars to make a non-profit? You must be kidding me. ‘
Dell’Aquila began its investigation into NRA actions two years ago. It started just enough, with him asking himself where his $ 100,000 donation went, and yet finding it difficult to get satisfactory answers.
Then he noticed how decision-making within the NRA was tightly regulated around LaPierre and his top team. ‘I started to see cliques. The inner circle of the NRA is very cliché. That’s one thing if you do a good job, but then I started to see money without responsibility, wasted expenses. ”
Dell’Aquila began to see LaPierre as a king figure. ‘He thinks he’s above the law. He has been in service for 30 years. Presidents and their board come and go, but he stays. He’s not responsible and he’s getting away with it – I just think it’s gone to his head. ”
Dell’Aquila spent an intensive year around the clock, asking questions to the CEO and the board, but rarely getting answers back. Employees, he said, began coming to him privately with information about inside.
When he criticizes LaPierre, he maintains his biggest complaints to the board of directors who have remained overwhelmingly loyal to the NRA leadership, despite notorious evidence of alleged malpractice. ‘Wayne could not have done all this stuff – the trips to the Bahamas, the special security, the packs, the private jets – without the board. They have financial supervision, they can require documents. They could cast a ballot and get Wayne out, so why not do it? ‘
For the past 20 years, the NRA has created a mythology around itself that portrays it as an unavailable, united, unstoppable force in the heart of conservative America. But as the building begins to creep in, sounds like those of Dell’Aquila – from within – finally begin to be heard.
For his part, he hopes that his class action will occur and that in the end it will be repaid $ 64 million, the current board will be replaced, and that a new NRA will come out of the ashes. He believes that one other thing must happen – LaPierre must be forced.
‘I’m not a pro-Wayne, I’m not a negative-Wayne. I’m objective Wayne, ”he said. “For the good of the NRA – Wayne has to go.”
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