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A major donor to the National Rifle Association is set to challenge key aspects of the gun group’s bankruptcy filing, in a bid to hold leaders accountable for allegedly defrauding their million dollar members to support their own lavish lifestyle.
Dave Dell’Aquila, a former boss of a tech company that has donated more than $ 100,000 to the NRA, told the Guardian on Saturday that he was preparing to file a lawsuit in U.S. bankruptcy court in Dallas, in Texas. If successful, this could prevent senior NRA leaders from paying off a substantial portion of the organization’s debts.
It could also prevent Wayne LaPierre, the controversial longtime NRA CEO, from avoiding ongoing lawsuits that he defrauded members of the pro-arms group to pay for luxury travel to the Bahamas and Europe and prosecution. high-end from Zegna.
LaPierre denied the allegations of financial impropriety, insisting in a letter to members of the NRA that the group is “well governed, financially solvent and committed to good governance”.
Dell’Aquila’s lawsuit, likely to be filed in the coming weeks, would use a bankruptcy code provision to prevent the NRA from circumventing more than $ 60 million in debt on the grounds that it was improperly incurred. The law states that debts acquired as a result of embezzlement may 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 initiated as a result of fraud and that it should be considered non-releasable. “
On Friday, the NRA declared bankruptcy in Dallas court. The organization also said it would be moving from New York, where it was founded in 1871, to Texas.
After the Chapter 11 filing, LaPierre admitted the move was meant to extricate the NRA from lawsuits threatening its existence. In August, New York Attorney General Letitia James sued the NRA in an attempt to shut it down, alleging that its executives had used it as a “personal piggy bank” and illegally embezzled $ 64 million for their own use.
LaPierre claims the civil lawsuit was politically motivated. On Friday, he said filing for bankruptcy and moving to Texas was a way to “empty New York.” The NRA continues to reincorporate into a state that values the contributions of the NRA. “
Dell’Aquila told The Guardian the move was predictable.
“I think they have planned this from the start,” he said. “It was always an ace they were 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 is shameful.
A year before the New York lawsuit, Dell’Aquila launched its own class action lawsuit against NRA leaders on behalf of the organization’s 5.2 million members. In that lawsuit, he recounted how he donated $ 100,000, believing it would go to wildlife conservation and Second Amendment promotional work.
Based on details uncovered by former NRA chairman Oliver North, Dell’Aquila alleged that “LaPierre received hundreds of thousands of dollars in clothing, private jet travel and other perks.”
The suit says $ 243,644 spent on luxury trips to the Bahamas, Palm Beach and Italy and $ 274,695 distributed in clothing stores in Beverly Hills.
The NRA attempted to have the civil action dismissed, arguing that Dell’Aquila lacked standing to bring the action. But the judge allowed the case to move forward with regard to individual allegations of fraud by NRA leaders in their fundraising.
In November, the Wall Street Journal reported that the NRA admitted that current and former leaders received at least $ 1.4 million in undue or excessive benefits. Disclosure was made in tax returns.
Dell’Aquila’s lawsuit has been suspended, pending the outcome of the bankruptcy proceedings. He hopes that by filing his new lawsuit he will be able to keep at least the alleged $ 64 million in the New York lawsuit out of the bankruptcy deal and thus continue to hold LaPierre and other executives under fire.
“Nothing has changed with Wayne as a leader over the past 30 years,” he said. “The NRA is still an old boys club, doing business in the back room and not being accountable to the 5.2 million members who pay for everything. It has to stop.
The New York attorney general also vowed to fight to prevent the 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,” James said after the bankruptcy announcement was announced.
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