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The New York State Attorney General's civil corruption case against the National Rifle Association, its leader Wayne LaPierre and other defendants centers on alleged mismanagement that cost the nonprofit organization millions of dollars. The trial, which is scheduled for opening statements this week, includes allegations that resources were pilfered from the organization for personal use, such as buying expensive clothes and taking luxury trips. The organization has a special nonprofit status because of practices that undermined its charitable mission. Powell and the New York Attorney General reached an agreement on Friday that included $100,000 in restitution and his testimony at the trial. LaPierre's decision to step down at the end of January came as he faced a court-ordered removal from the NRA. After LaPierre's decision to step down became public, attorneys for him denied wrongdoing. A six-member panel of jurors will decide in the first phase whether there is cause to remove Frazer, the only remaining employee. A judge in the second phase will decide if Frazer's removal from the organization is justified, what damages to order and whether to mandate a monitor to oversee the organization's finances and spending. The organization is accused of enabling and permitting some of the alleged inappropriate conduct. The group's net assets fell by 64 million dollars because of its lack of accountability. It says that for decades, he hid questionable expenses through the NRA's former public relations and advertising firm, which he used to hide the misuse of millions of dollars of the organization's money.
According to court documents, LaPierre has taken his family to the Bahamas on a private jet at least eight times since 2015. The misuse of funds and other issues were addressed by the National Rifle Association several years ago, according to William Brewer, an attorney for the organization. When the audit committee learned of violations with certain contractors, it ended relationships with those that were not in compliance. The New York supreme court ruled against the dissolution of the National Rifle Association after the attorney general sued. The 2012 Sandy Hook massacre of 20 first- graders and six adults has divided Americans because of the National Rifle Association's hard-line stance on gun rights. The rise of smaller pro-Second Amendment associations has been caused by the alleged financial misappropriations of the National Rifle Association. Suplina said that the most effective part of the NRA is that it has infused its extremist ideology into a kind of mainstream culture-war debate that will survive the organization.