NY AG sues NRA seeking dissolution over $64M fraud by Wayne LaPierre, executives

New York Attorney General Letitia James filed lawsuit to dissolve the National Rifle Association after three-year investigation revealed $64 million in financial misconduct by executive leadership (2015-2018). The suit charged NRA chief Wayne LaPierre and three senior executives with diverting charitable funds for personal use including $500,000+ for eight Bahamas yacht trips, $11 million in private jets for personal travel, luxury gifts, no-show contracts to buy silence, and excessive security costs. The organization’s surplus of $27.8 million in 2015 became a $36 million deficit by 2018 due to systematic self-dealing. James sought to remove LaPierre and bar all four executives from nonprofit leadership in New York. The case exposed how powerful nonprofit leaders exploit weak governance and oversight to treat charitable assets as personal wealth, demonstrating institutional capture where board members enabled rather than prevented systematic looting of member donations.