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A major National Rifle Association donor is willing to challenge key aspects of the weapons group’s bankruptcy filing, in an attempt to hold executives accountable for allegedly defrauding their members of millions of dollars to support their own lavish lifestyles.
Dave Dell’Aquila, a former head of the technology company who 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, Texas. If successful, it could allow top ANR executives to discount a significant portion of the organization’s debts.
It could also stop Wayne LaPierre, the controversial longtime NRA executive, by avoiding ongoing lawsuits alleging he defrauded members of the pro-gun group to pay for luxury trips to the Bahamas and Europe and high-end suits of Zegna.
LaPierre has denied allegations of financial inadequacy and insisted in a letter to ANR members that the group is “well-governed, financially sound and committed to good governance.”
Dell’Aquila’s complaint, which is likely to be filed in the coming weeks, would use a provision in the bankruptcy code to prevent the ANR from evading more than $ 60 million in debt for reasons that were unduly incurred. The law states that debts acquired for misdemeanors 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 are going to ask the judge to determine that our lawsuit has occurred as a result of a fraud and should be considered unloadable. “
The NRA filed for bankruptcy in Dallas court on Friday. The organization also said it would move from New York, where it was founded in 1871, to Texas.
Following the presentation of Chapter 11, LaPierre admitted that the measure was designed to extract the ANR from lawsuits that threatened its existence. In August, New York Attorney General Letitia James sued the ANR in an attempt to shut it down, alleging that its leaders had used it as a “personal piggy bank” and illegally diverted it. $ 64 million for your own use.
LaPierre states that the civil lawsuit had political motives. On Friday, he said filing for bankruptcy and relocating to Texas were a way to “dump New York. The ANR is pursuing reinstatement in a state that values ANR contributions.”
Dell’Aquila told the Guardian that the move was predictable.
“I think they planned it all the time,” he said. “It simply came to our notice then. It is only tragic that the ANR is wasting millions of dollars in members ’money on attorneys’ fees and such litigation. It’s a shame. “
A year before the New York lawsuit, Dell’Aquila filed its own class action lawsuit against ANR executives on behalf of the organization’s 5.2 million members. In this lawsuit, he recounted how he had donated $ 100,000, thinking it would go to the conservation of wildlife and the work of advocating the second modification.
Based on details discovered by former NRA President Oliver North, Dell’Aquila alleged that “LaPierre had received hundreds of thousands of dollars in clothing, private jet travel and other benefits.”
The lawsuit points to $ 243,644 spent on luxury travel to the Bahamas, Palm Beach and Italy and $ 274,695 dispensed at Beverly Hills clothing stores.
The ANR tried to dismiss the civil lawsuit, arguing that Dell’Aquila had no right to file the action. But the judge allowed the case to go ahead with regard to the individual fraud claims of the ANR leaders in the grant application.
In November, the Wall Street Journal reported that the NRA had admitted that current and former executives had received at least $ 1.4 million in undue or excessive profits. The disclosure was made in the filing of taxes.
Dell’Aquila’s lawsuit has been put on hold, pending the outcome of a bankruptcy proceeding. He hopes that by filing his new complaint, he can keep at least the $ 64 million alleged in the New York lawsuit from the bankruptcy settlement and therefore continue to keep the feet of LaPierre and other executives on fire.
“Nothing has changed with Wayne as a leader in the last 30 years,” he said. “The NRA is still a club for the elderly, which does business in the back room and is not responsible for the 5.2 million members who pay for everything. It has to stop ”.
The New York Attorney General has also pledged to fight to prevent ANR leaders from escaping the legal consequences of their actions.
“We will not allow the ANR to use this or any other tactic to evade the responsibility and oversight of my office,” James said after the bankruptcy filing was announced.