Wayne LaPierre: NRA Verdict, Ten-Year Ban, and Appeal

The Wayne LaPierre corruption trial ended in February 2024 with a Manhattan jury finding the former National Rifle Association chief executive liable for diverting millions in donor funds to pay for yacht trips, private jets, custom suits, and family expenses. He was ordered to repay roughly $4.3 million to the NRA, banned for ten years from any paid leadership role at the organization, and, in June 2026, lost his appeal when a New York appellate court upheld both the money judgment and the ban.¹

What the New York Attorney General Alleged

On August 6, 2020, New York Attorney General Letitia James filed suit against the NRA and four individuals, including LaPierre, after an 18-month investigation. The complaint alleged a “culture of self-dealing, mismanagement and negligent oversight” that had cost the organization more than $64 million over three years. James initially sought to dissolve the NRA entirely and described LaPierre as having used the group as a “personal piggy bank.”²³

Against LaPierre specifically, the state alleged he had taken more than $1.2 million in questionable reimbursements, used charitable funds for private jets and luxury vacations, and secured an unapproved post-employment contract worth more than $17 million.² The other defendants were former CFO Wilson “Woody” Phillips, former chief of staff Joshua Powell, and general counsel John Frazer, each accused of related breaches of duty.

The Spending at the Center of the Case

Trial evidence focused on how LaPierre spent NRA money on himself and people close to him. Between 2013 and 2018 he took six annual summer voyages aboard a 108-foot yacht called “Illusions,” owned by a longtime NRA contractor, David McKenzie. A four-night cruise on the vessel was valued at more than $75,000. LaPierre initially described the trips as “security retreats” following the Sandy Hook shooting, but records showed one coincided with his niece’s wedding in the Bahamas. He did not disclose any of the trips on required NRA conflict-of-interest forms for nearly a decade.⁴

The NRA also covered millions in private jet travel. State lawyers alleged more than $1 million in flights on which LaPierre was not a passenger, including nearly $27,000 to fly his niece and her husband from Dallas to Orlando and $15,000 for her husband to travel from Las Vegas to Nebraska.⁵ Over $500,000 in NRA-funded flights went to the Bahamas alone.³

Other charges to the NRA included custom suits from a Zegna boutique in Beverly Hills, more than $16,300 in hair and makeup services for his wife Susan, over $98,000 for a chauffeur during his assistant Millie Hallow’s two-week trip to Paris, and NRA funds used by Hallow to pay for her son’s wedding.⁵³ In deposition testimony, LaPierre said the suits had been arranged by an Ackerman McQueen advisor who “wanted me in light suits because he thought that women responded better in light suits.”⁶

Ackerman McQueen, the Oklahoma advertising firm that had shaped the NRA’s public identity for decades, was central to how the money moved. In 2017 the NRA paid Ackerman and its affiliates over $40 million, and the state alleged LaPierre’s personal expenses, including concert tickets, NASCAR events, and medical visits, were billed through the firm and charged back to the NRA.⁷³

Resignation Days Before Trial

LaPierre had tried once before to move the fight out of New York. In January 2021 he steered the NRA into Chapter 11 bankruptcy in a Dallas federal court, hoping to reincorporate in Texas. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Harlin Hale dismissed the petition in May 2021, finding the NRA was “a solvent and growing organization” that had filed to gain an “unfair litigation advantage,” and calling LaPierre’s decision to exclude senior leaders “nothing less than shocking.”⁸

On January 5, 2024, three days before the civil trial was set to begin in Manhattan, LaPierre announced his resignation, effective at the end of the month. NRA President Charles Cotton cited “health reasons.”⁹¹⁰¹¹ Attorney General James called the resignation “an important victory” but said it “will not insulate him or the NRA from accountability.”¹²

The Verdict

The trial proceeded without him at the helm of the organization. Co-defendant Joshua Powell settled before it began, admitting he had breached his fiduciary duties and converted NRA charitable assets, agreeing to pay $100,000, and accepting a permanent bar from serving as a nonprofit officer.¹³

On February 23, 2024, after a six-week trial, the jury found LaPierre liable for violating his duty to act in good faith and for improperly enriching himself and those close to him. It assessed $5.4 million in damages against him. After crediting roughly $1 million he had already repaid, he was ordered to pay about $4.3 million to the NRA.¹⁴¹⁵ Woody Phillips was found liable for $2 million. John Frazer was found to have acted inappropriately, but the jury concluded his actions caused no measurable financial harm. Phillips later accepted a ten-year ban from serving as a fiduciary for any New York nonprofit; his $2 million judgment stood.¹⁶

The Ten-Year Ban and Court-Ordered Reforms

On July 29, 2024, Justice Cohen issued the remedies ruling. He imposed a ten-year ban on LaPierre from holding any paid position as an officer or director of the NRA. The attorney general had asked for a lifetime ban. Cohen rejected LaPierre’s First Amendment defense, writing that the ban restricted “the privilege, not the right, to serve” and “does not in any way restrict his speech.”¹⁷

Cohen declined to appoint an independent monitor over NRA finances, calling that kind of oversight “time-consuming, disruptive” and raising “speech-chilling government intrusion” concerns.¹⁸ Instead, a December 2024 judgment locked in a set of governance reforms. The NRA was required to hire a court-approved compliance consultant, bar anyone who had served on its audit committee between 2014 and 2022 from serving on that committee again, reform board election and nomination procedures, and report annually to members on leadership expenditures, including first-class travel.¹⁹ Any settlement between the NRA and LaPierre on the $5.4 million judgment must also receive court approval.²⁰

The 2026 Appeal

LaPierre appealed both the damages award and the ten-year ban, raising three arguments. He claimed the $4.3 million judgment was a fine that punished him for his political expression. He argued Attorney General James had brought the case in retaliation for his gun-rights advocacy. And he argued his resignation before trial had rendered the leadership ban moot.¹

On June 2, 2026, the New York Appellate Division, First Department, rejected all three in a five-page ruling. The panel found the $4.3 million was “compensatory in nature” and served the “remedial purpose of reimbursing the NRA for the losses LaPierre caused,” not punishing his speech. On retaliation, the court held the attorney general “showed as a matter of law that it had probable cause to investigate and sue,” citing public reports of malfeasance that predated the official investigation. On mootness, the court noted that based on the jury’s verdict, LaPierre “would have been removed for cause had he not resigned suddenly.”²¹¹

Where Things Stand

Under the appellate court’s ruling, LaPierre remains liable for the $4.3 million judgment and is barred from holding any paid leadership position at the NRA until at least 2034. He remains an NRA member.²²

The organization he left is in a weaker financial position than at any point during his tenure. Doug Hamlin, a former Marine and the longtime executive director of NRA publications, was elected CEO and executive vice president in May 2024.²³ Membership dues revenue fell to $51.7 million in 2024, down from over $83 million in 2022. The NRA lost $35 million in 2023 and liquidated nearly $40 million in investments in 2024 to cover operating costs, shrinking its investment portfolio to less than $33 million. Net assets stood at roughly $16 million at the end of 2024, down from nearly $42 million two years earlier. One analysis found 21 cents of every dollar in revenue was going to legal representation.²⁴

1
Courthouse News Service. Ex-NRA Chief Wayne LaPierre Loses Appeal of $4 Million Corruption Penalty
2
NPR. New York Attorney General Moves to Dissolve the NRA After Fraud Investigation
3
NBC News. Wayne LaPierre Allegedly Used NRA as Personal Piggy Bank
4
The New Yorker. NRA Chief Wayne LaPierre’s Misleading Testimony About Free Yacht Trips in the Bahamas
5
Courthouse News Service. NRA Chief Wayne LaPierre Talks Yachts, Private Jets in Testimony at Manhattan Corruption Trial
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NRA Watch. NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre Deposition Transcript
7
The Trace. NRA Financial Misconduct Ackerman McQueen
8
NBC News. NRA Bankruptcy Filing Blocked by Texas Judge
9
The New York Times. Wayne LaPierre Resigns From NRA
10
Business Insider. NRA Leader Wayne LaPierre’s Brain Is Shrinking, Doctors Say
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Business Insider. How Ill Is NRA’s Wayne LaPierre? Corruption Judge Asks Doctors to Swear
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New York Attorney General. Statement on Resignation of NRA Executive Vice President
13
ABC News. Former NRA Executive Joshua Powell Pleads Guilty to Fraud
14
NPR. NRA Wayne LaPierre Corruption Trial Verdict
15
The Trace. NRA Trial NY Verdict Wayne LaPierre
16
Portland Press Herald. NRA’s Ex-CFO Agreed to 10-Year Not-for-Profit Ban
17
NPR. NY Judge Bans Former NRA Head Wayne LaPierre
18
Courthouse News Service. Judge: No NRA Monitor but 10-Year Ban on Wayne LaPierre
19
The Trace. NRA Reforms New York Corruption Case
20
ABA Journal. NRA Must Hire Court-Approved Compliance Consultant
21
ABC News. Former NRA CEO Must Repay $4.3 Million for Misappropriating Money
22
The Trace. NRA Wayne LaPierre Corruption Appeal
23
Guns & Ammo. Change of Command
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NOTUS. NRA National Rifle Association Selling Investments