WAIT, THAT'S NOT HOW A NON-PROFIT IS SUPPOSED TO WORK?:

New York Attorney General Letitia James announced a blockbuster lawsuit yesterday calling for the dissolution of the National Rifle Association (NRA). The charges follow an investigation led by James's office into the NRA's alleged financial misdealings. The lawsuit accuses NRA leaders of violating state and federal laws and diverting millions of dollars meant for the NRA's operations into their personal coffers. Longtime NRA chief executive Wayne LaPierre is a named defendant in the lawsuit, along with three other current or former high-ranking NRA officials.

The NRA, a nonprofit organization incorporated in New York State, has been suspected of corruption for some time. In 2018, accused Russian spy Maria Butina pleaded guilty to engaging in a conspiracy against the United States. Her vector for gaining influence in Republican circles allegedly came through the NRA. In 2019, former NRA President Oliver North was pushed out of the organization after losing a power struggle with LaPierre. North has alleged rampant corruption in the organization. 

James has accused LaPierre of "looting" the NRA, detailing extravagant expenses: a $17 million dollar personal retirement fund for LaPierre that he did not report to his board, private jets for his wife and niece, and trips to the Bahamas, paid for with NRA funds, to hang out on a private yacht named "Illusions"--which is what courts should have called LaPierre's constitutional theories. All told, James said the actions of LaPierre and others in leadership contributed to the loss of $64 million of NRA net assets in just three years. 

A potentially major breakthrough in the investigation occurred in February of this year when the NRA lost its case to prevent its former advertising agency, Ackerman McQueen, from releasing documents to New York's AG. 

As the top prosecutor in the state where the NRA is incorporated, James is in the best legal position to address the organization's alleged corruption. James, and James alone, has the legal authority to sue for the dissolution of the NRA, thanks to New York State's laws governing not-for-profit corporations. Here's the statute, NYCL Section 1101(a)(2):

The attorney-general may bring an action for the dissolution of a corporation upon one or more of the following grounds:...That the corporation has exceeded the authority conferred upon it by law, or has violated any provision of law whereby it has forfeited its charter, or carried on, conducted or transacted its business in a persistently fraudulent or illegal manner, or by the abuse of its powers contrary to public policy of the state has become liable to be dissolved.

If I may put that into language the NRA can understand: that statute contains enough firepower to take out Bambi's mom. 

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