Former NRA chief Wayne LaPierre, 74, has been found liable following allegations that he used his employer’s funds on private planes and accepted expensive gifts.
LaPierre has now been ordered to pay the powerful gun rights group $4.3 million in damages for its mismanagement and waste of charitable funds.
During his jury trial, a New York court heard how LaPierre acted as the ‘King of the NRA,’ spending lavishly on himself, punishing dissent while showering his allies with country club memberships and no-show contracts. .
On Friday afternoon he was found responsible for signing a $17 million contract with the NRA if he left the organization, and for spending NRA money on travel advisors, luxury car services and five-star trips.
Dubbed “Wayne’s World,” La Pierre is alleged to have allowed insiders to waste tens of millions of dollars on five-star hotels, private jets and his preferred contractors.
LaPierre’s methods as executive vice president and CEO of the NRA allowed him to operate the powerful gun rights organization while the trial scrutinized his leadership and spending at the nonprofit.
LaPierre watched the entire trial, sitting stoically from a seat along a courtroom wall as six jurors and six alternates sat for the trial, which lasted nearly seven weeks. The jury began deliberations on February 16 and reached its verdict on Friday.
Wayne LaPierre, 74, has been found responsible for corruption after a six-week trial.
Wayne LaPierre acted as the ‘King of the NRA,’ spending lavishly on himself, punishing dissent, and showering allies with country club memberships and no-show contracts.
The veteran lobbyist built the NRA into a political powerhouse during his 32 years in office.
LaPierre charged the organization more than $11 million for private jet flights over the years and authorized $135 million in contracts with the NRA for a supplier whose owners provided him with repeat access to a 108-foot yacht and trips free to the Bahamas, Greece, Dubai and India.
At the same time, LaPierre consolidated his power and avoided scrutiny by hiring unqualified subordinates who looked the other way, directing spending through a vendor, manipulating invoices, and retaliating against board members and executives who questioned his spending. Connell said.
In one example, former NRA chief financial officer Craig Spray found himself unable to log into the organization’s computer system after objecting to the way LaPierre did business.
In a November 2020 email to the organization’s top brass, Spray took issue with the chief’s authoritarian rule, writing, “There are no “Wayne Said” endorsements at the NRA.”
LaPierre remained silent about the gifts he received from vendors until the morning he testified in the failed NRA bankruptcy in Texas in 2021, Connell said.
LaPierre, pictured with his wife Susan, claimed the lawsuit was politically motivated after she vowed to go after the NRA prior to the appointment of Letitia James as Attorney General.
New York Attorney General Letitia James sued the NRA, LaPierre and three current or former executives in 2020, alleging they cost the organization tens of millions of dollars in questionable spending.
LaPierre was accused of signing a $17 million contract with the NRA if he left the organization. He spent NRA money on travel advisors, luxury car services and five-star trips.
LaPierre, pictured with his wife and the late Shawn and Larry King, was re-elected as head of the NRA in 2021 despite controversies.
For years before that, he said, he had been checking “no” on an internal disclosure form that asked if he had received any gifts worth more than $300.
LaPierre’s actions and those of the “entrenched leadership” that enabled his alleged behavior “violated the trust” of the organization’s five million members, Connell said.
His conduct violated laws governing nonprofit charities and the organization’s internal policies governing travel, expenses, conflicts of interest and whistleblower protections, he said.
“They acted illegally over and over again for years,” Connell told the jury.
New York Attorney General Letitia James sued the NRA, LaPierre and three current or former executives in 2020, alleging they cost the organization tens of millions of dollars in questionable spending.
However, in recent years the organization has been beset by financial problems, a decline in membership and infighting.
LaPierre has defended himself in the past, testifying in another proceeding that his yacht trips were a “safe haven” because he faced threats after mass shootings.
The other defendants, NRA general counsel John Frazer and retired chief financial officer Wilson Phillips, have denied wrongdoing.
Another former NRA executive turned whistleblower, Joshua Powell, reached a settlement with James’ office on Friday. He has agreed to testify at trial, pay the NRA $100,000 and renounce further involvement in nonprofit organizations.
The NRA trial was held in the same Manhattan courtroom as former President Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial.
LaPierre, pictured at a 2022 NRA rally with Donald Trump, has been found responsible for diverting millions of dollars to pay for his lavish lifestyle.
A private jet flight from Washington, DC to Dallas, Texas, with a stop in Nebraska to pick up LaPierre’s niece, cost the NRA $59,000. Another, with a stop in Nebraska on the way to Orlando, Florida, cost the organization $79,000.
An NRA policy filed in court said the organization only reimburses airline flights in economy class. A commercial flight on the same routes would not have cost more than a few hundred dollars per person, the listings show.
James, a Democrat, is the state’s top law enforcement official and has regulatory power over state-chartered nonprofits such as the NRA.
James initially attempted to shut down the organization, but a judge rejected that as a solution.
The jury found that he caused $5.4 million in damages to the NRA by violating his legal duties, but showed that he had already returned just over $1 million to the charity.
The NRA trial was held in the same Manhattan courtroom as former President Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial.
LaPierre resigned at the end of January. The NRA said he was leaving for health reasons.
The NRA was founded as a nonprofit organization in New York in 1871 by Union Army officers who wanted to improve marksmanship among soldiers after the Civil War.