There is a bad smell at the NRA

[Dave Grubb]

from this afternoon's WSJ:
(excerpt)

By Mark Maremont
Updated Aug. 12, 2019 3:56 pm ET
In May 2018, the National Rifle Association sent a $70,000 check to an obscure Delaware entity called WBB Investments LLC, which had been incorporated a week earlier.

The check, a copy of which was obtained by The Wall Street Journal, raises new questions about the NRA’s attempts to explain a tangled transaction involving its then-outside advertising agency and an abortive plan to purchase a $6 million Dallas mansion for NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre.

The advertising agency, Ackerman McQueen, recently turned over documents to the proposed house purchase to the New York attorney general’s office, which is probing Mr. LaPierre’s dealings with the agency as part of a broad investigation of the NRA.

When the Journal broke the story last week, the NRA initially said the plan to buy the mansion was hatched by Angus McQueen, the ad agency’s late co-CEO, as a kind of safe house for Mr. LaPierre. The NRA chief had concerns about his security in the wake of the February 2018 mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla.

[Billy_Rightwing]

Could be a bunch of bull roar, but WSJ is pretty dependable.

[wacojoe]

A $6,000,000 safe house? A bit up-scaled from the usual room at a Ramada Inn.

[Truckman]

A $6,000,000 safe house? A bit up-scaled from the usual room at a Ramada Inn.

There are times when the housekeeping staff at the Ramada Inn just haven't been properly trained to replace the toilet paper roll when it's more than 25% used up...Such an indiscretion can prove embarrassing if an impromptu policy meeting must be scheduled outside NRA headquarters......Ben

[Independent Voter]

If " Pepe " LaPierre is not replaced, I believe the odor will prevent me from renewing my membership.

[Truckman]

If " Pepe " LaPierre is not replaced, I believe the odor will prevent me from renewing my membership.

My endowment membership has been paid in full for more than 30 years...They haven't seen a new nickel of my money since, although they've wasted untold amounts on paper and stamps trying to get more......Ben

[Mike]

My endowment membership has been paid in full for more than 30 years...They haven't seen a new nickel of my money since, although they've wasted untold amounts on paper and stamps trying to get more......Ben

Same here.

[Dave Grubb]

I'm just a lowly Life member---for about 45 years----and despite many attempts to shame me into upgrading my status---I have steadfastly resisted---and as long as De Pew remains that wont even be a discussion.

[Mike]

Over the years I've had several telephone calls from them wanting me to donate money or upgrade my membership. I always tell them I will upgrade, just as soon as La Pierre is fired or resigns. Waste of time I'm sure.

[Dave Grubb]

Today's "installment" from the WSJ:

Aug. 13, 2019 12:35 pm ET

A top National Rifle Association executive signed a document agreeing that the gun-rights organization would be 99% owner of a company formed to buy a $6 million Dallas mansion for NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre, according to a copy of the document reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

The document also shows the NRA agreed to contribute $6.5 million to the company formed to buy the property, raising yet more questions about the NRA’s previous statements that none of the gun-rights group’s money was to be used to purchase the house for Mr. LaPierre.


The house-purchase deal never happened, but conflicting explanations from the NRA and its former ad agency for the aborted transaction have renewed the focus on Mr. LaPierre’s financial dealings with the agency, Ackerman McQueen Inc.

The NRA and Ackerman McQueen agree that the plan to buy the Dallas property started early last year, when Mr. LaPierre had concerns about his safety in the wake of the February 2018 mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla.

Mr. LaPierre and his wife, Susan, twice toured the 10,000-square-foot house, in a gated golf community near Dallas, according to people familiar with the matter.

Ackerman McQueen, which at the time had a close relationship with the NRA dating back more than 30 years, agreed to help facilitate the transaction and to manage the property after closing, these people said.

When the Journal reported the aborted house deal last week, the NRA said the house was to have been purchased by a company owned by senior Ackerman executives, and Mr. LaPierre shut down the transaction after discovering that the ad agency intended to use NRA funds for the deal. “Not a cent of NRA money was ultimately spent,” an outside NRA attorney, William A. Brewer III, said then.

The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that the NRA sent a $70,000 check in May 2018 to a company formed to buy the house, WBB Investments LLC. WBB Investments, set up in Delaware by an Ackerman attorney, returned the money the following month, but the NRA check was the most tangible sign of money flow in the proposed deal.

The newly revealed document reviewed by the Journal was dated at the time of WBB Investments’ formation in May 2018, and was signed by Wilson H. Phillips Jr., the NRA’s then-chief financial officer and treasurer. In it, he agreed that the NRA would contribute $6.5 million for 99% ownership of WBB Investments, while an Ackerman entity would contribute $10 for 1% ownership.

In a statement, NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam said: “As we have said repeatedly, neither Mr. LaPierre nor the Board ever formally considered, much less approved, an investment in the house in question or the other properties shown by Ackerman McQueen’s real estate agent.”

The NRA didn’t provide a detailed response to questions about the document’s terms or its former CFO’s signature on it. Mr. Phillips couldn’t be reached for comment.

Mr. LaPierre previously has fended off boardroom dissent over earlier revelations about more than $540,000 of clothing and travel expenses that Ackerman picked up for the NRA chief. The NRA has said the costs were justified for business reasons.

The NRA ended its contract with Ackerman earlier this year, and the two organizations are embroiled in litigation.

Ackerman recently turned over documents related to the proposed house purchase to the New York attorney general’s office, which is probing Mr. LaPierre’s dealings with the agency as part of a broad investigation of the NRA.

Write to Mark Maremont at mark.maremont@wsj.com

Copyright ©2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

[mgrist]

Trump and his Russian buddies are behind it, has to be!

[Dave Grubb]

From this morning's Daily Briefing:

How the N.R.A.’s leader survived a revolt

Wayne LaPierre, the chief executive of the National Rifle Association, has been challenged this year by the organization’s top lobbyist, its president, its advertising firm, and several board members and donors.

But Mr. LaPierre, who has run the N.R.A. since 1991, has remained in office and continues to advance the group’s agenda, including this week when he appeared to personally persuade President Trump to resist significant gun control measures after two mass shootings.

A Times review of previously undisclosed documents reveals the depth of the effort inside the gun rights group to oust its leader.

Yesterday: The N.R.A. dismissed its longtime outside counsel, people with knowledge of the decision said. A second outside counsel and a top in-house counsel also resigned, after an internal inquiry showed that the lawyers were involved in moves against Mr. LaPierre.

[Dave Grubb]

From today's WSJ:

By Mark Maremont
Aug. 26, 2019 10:59 am ET
The National Rifle Association paid for private jets to fly to and from central Nebraska to ferry relatives of the group’s chief executive, Wayne LaPierre, according to travel itineraries, emails and aviation records reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

One such trip took place in April 2017, when Mr. LaPierre and his wife, Susan, returned from meetings and a Nascar race the NRA chief attended in the Dallas area, according to a travel itinerary reviewed by the Journal and a person familiar with the matter.

On the flight back to NRA headquarters near Washington, D.C., the jet detoured about 500 miles out of the way to Grand Island, Neb., “to pick up Colleen” and her daughter, the itinerary says.

Colleen Sterner, a niece of Susan LaPierre, lives in Nebraska and is a low-level employee of the gun-rights group. The LaPierres have no children and Mrs. LaPierre is close to her niece and her niece’s young daughter, according to people familiar with the matter.

Such a detour on that type of jet typically would cost about $5,000, according to two charter-jet operators.

An NRA spokesman, Andrew Arulanandam, said that although Ms. Sterner typically flies on commercial airlines for her job, “she has occasionally traveled via private aircraft with NRA officials and vendors in connection with her professional responsibilities. On occasion, she has been transported to her area of residence in connection with such travel.”

The NRA didn’t respond to questions about the business purpose for taking Ms. Sterner’s daughter on trips with the LaPierres. Ms. Sterner didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The private-jet travel for Mr. LaPierre’s relatives is the latest revelation of questionable spending by the NRA chief, which has included more than $540,000 of travel and wardrobe expenses billed to an outside contractor and an aborted plan to use NRA money to buy a $6 million mansion for the NRA chief, according to NRA documents and documents related to the planned real estate deal reviewed by the Journal.

[Dave Grubb]

The crap just keeps coming

By Mark Maremont
Sept. 23, 2019 3:23 pm ET (WSJ)

The National Rifle Association’s board retroactively approved numerous financial arrangements benefiting top officials of the gun-rights group, their relatives or close friends, according to board minutes reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

The retroactive moves, some involving previously undisclosed transactions, came during two meetings of the NRA board’s audit committee late last year as the gun-rights group was racing to clean up its lax governance practices.

In one arrangement, not previously disclosed, the NRA paid $1.4 million to a Texas company run by a woman who the board said “maintains a longstanding personal relationship” with the NRA’s then-chief financial officer and treasurer, Wilson H. Phillips, Jr. The payments for unspecified information-technology services ended in 2017, but were approved by the audit committee in September 2018, the minutes show.

Other transactions the committee approved only after they were made include Mr. Phillips paying for a 2018 cruise on a yacht owned by a large NRA vendor; the payment of more than $100,000 to the father of another top NRA official for photography services; and the hiring of the son of yet another senior official as a stage manager and musician.

In total, the audit committee approved 10 arrangements involving NRA insiders at the two meetings in 2018. Many “should have been disclosed and approved in advance,” the minutes say.

[Independent Voter]

Looks like " We the People " are once again being used by those who say they are doing everything possible to protect out constitutional rights . Money is being spent to benefit the few rather than for it's intended use.

When the time to renew rolls around, I don't think my few $ will be sent in.