The former head of the National Rifle Association (NRA) Wayne LaPierre, who resigned in January from this very influential arms lobby on the American political system, was judged on Friday, February 23, by New York civil justice guilty of mismanagement and corruption.
This verdict of a jury of a New York civil court, revealed by the American judicial press and confirmed by the Attorney General of the State of New York, Letitia James, is accompanied by financial compensation for Mr. LaPierre. more than $4.3 million (€4 million). In total, “Wayne LaPierre and a senior NRA executive must pay $6.35 million for abusing the system and violating our laws,” thundered on X Letitia James, the highest judge in the State of New York and also a sort of local minister of justice.
“It’s a major victory,” said the prosecutor who on February 16, by a civil court in New York, sentenced former President Donald Trump to a fine of at least $355 million. before interest for financial fraud within his Trump Organization real estate empire.
According to the ABC network, the jury in the NRA trial determined that Mr. LaPierre - its former historical leader - had cost his organization some $5.4 million through mismanagement, but that he already had refunded 1 million.
Lavish personal expenses paid by the NRA
“In New York, you can’t get away with corruption and greed even if you think you feel powerful and influential. Everyone, even the NRA and Wayne LaPierre, must play by the same rules,” insisted Letitia James, an African-American magistrate elected to the Democratic Party who tracks corruption among elected officials and businesses in her state of twenty million people. inhabitants, including nearly nine million for the megacity of New York. She launched civil action in August 2020 and investigated for almost a year and a half.
Wayne LaPierre was prosecuted for lavish personal expenses paid by the NRA and other misuses of corporate assets, including plane trips and stays on yachts. Mr. LaPierre and the NRA have denied all accusations.
Three days before his trial, at the beginning of January, this 74-year-old leader announced his resignation as head of the NRA on January 31, after three decades as head of an organization of five million members, with very strong influence on elected representatives of Congress and on American politics.
The 150-year-old association, supposedly non-profit, is registered in New York and declared bankruptcy in 2021, but this procedure failed. It is under the leadership of Mr. LaPierre that the lobby has become extremely active with political leaders whom it finances or rates unfavorably, managing to block in Congress legislative proposals considered to limit the constitutional right to own and carry a firearm. For example, the NRA contributed tens of millions of dollars to Donald Trump's victorious campaign in 2016.
The United States has more personal weapons than people: one in three adults owns at least one weapon and nearly one in two adults lives in a home where a weapon is present. The consequence of this proliferation is the very high rate of firearm deaths in the United States, incomparable to that of other developed countries. Around 49,000 people died from gunfire there in 2021, compared to 45,000 in 2020, which was already a record year. This represents more than 130 deaths per day, more than half of which are suicides.
