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A major donor to the National Rifle Association is about to challenge key aspects of the armed group’s bankruptcy filing, in an attempt to hold executives accountable for allegedly defrauding its members in millions of dollars to support their own luxurious lifestyle.
Dave Dell’Aquila, a former head of a technology company that donated more than $ 100,000 to the NRA, told the Guardian on Saturday that he was preparing to file a complaint with the US bankruptcy court in Dallas, Texas. If successful, this could prevent top NRA executives from paying a substantial portion of the organization’s debts.
It could also prevent Wayne LaPierre, the longtime controversial NRA chief executive, by avoiding ongoing lawsuits that claim he defrauded members of the pro-arms group to pay for luxury travel to the Bahamas and Europe and sophisticated Zegna lawsuits .
LaPierre denied the accusations of financial impropriety, insisting in a letter to NRA members that the group is “well governed, financially solvent and committed to good governance”.
Dell’Aquila’s claim, likely to be filed in the coming weeks, would use a bankruptcy code clause to prevent the NRA from shunning more than $ 60 million in debt for incurring undue debt. The law stipulates that debts incurred due to improbity can be considered by the court as an exception to bankruptcy agreements.
Speaking from his home in Nashville, Tennessee, Dell’Aquila said: “We intend to invoke this provision. We will ask the judge to determine that our claim was incurred as a result of fraud and should be considered unappealable. “
The NRA declared bankruptcy in the Dallas court on Friday. The organization also said it would move from New York, where it was founded in 1871, to Texas.
After the filing of Chapter 11, LaPierre admitted that the lawsuit was designed to free the NRA from lawsuits that threaten its existence. In August, New York Attorney General Letitia James sued the NRA in an attempt to close it, claiming that its leaders used it as a “personal piggy bank” and illegally diverted $ 64 million for their own use.
LaPierre says the civil process was politically motivated. On Friday, he said filing for bankruptcy and moving to Texas were a way to “leave New York. The NRA is seeking reincorporation in a state that values NRA contributions. “
Dell’Aquila told the Guardian that the change was predictable.
“I think they planned this all the time,” he said. “It was always an ace who was going to play. It is simply tragic that the NRA is wasting millions of dollars in members’ money on attorney fees and this type of litigation. It’s shameful. “
A year before the legal action in New York, Dell’Aquila opened its own class action against NRA executives on behalf of the organization’s 5.2 million members. In the process, he recounted how he had donated $ 100,000, thinking it would go to wildlife conservation and the Second Amendment advocacy effort.
Based on details discovered by former NRA President Oliver North, Dell’Aquila claimed that “LaPierre received hundreds of thousands of dollars in clothing, private jet travel and other benefits.”
The suit points to $ 243,644 spent on luxury travel to the Bahamas, Palm Beach and Italy and $ 274,695 spent at clothing stores in Beverly Hills.
The NRA tried to file the civil suit, arguing that Dell’Aquila had no standing to initiate the suit. But the judge allowed the case to go ahead with individual complaints of fraud by NRA leaders in their request for donations.
In November, the Wall Street Journal reported that the NRA admitted that executives and former executives received at least $ 1.4 million in undue or excessive benefits. The disclosure was made in notices of infraction.
The Dell’Aquila process has been suspended pending the outcome of the bankruptcy process. He hopes that, by filing his new complaint, he will be able to keep at least the $ 64 million alleged in the New York lawsuit out of the bankruptcy settlement and thus continue to put LaPierre and other executives on fire.
“Nothing has changed with Wayne as a leader in the past 30 years,” he said. “The NRA is still an old boys’ club, which closes deals behind the scenes and is not accountable to the 5.2 million members who pay for everything. You have to stop. “
The New York attorney general also promised to fight to prevent NRA leaders from escaping the legal consequences of their actions.
“We will not allow the NRA to use this or any other tactic to escape the responsibility and oversight of my office,” said James after the bankruptcy filing was announced.