Former National Rifle Association finance czar Wilson “Woody” Phillips has been banned from managing funds for nonprofit organizations in New York for the subsequent 10 years, the state’s attorney general said Tuesday.
Phillips approved the ban in May, three months after a Jury found him guilty in a plan to get the influential gun rights organization to finance the extravagant lifestyle of the long-time NRA boss, Wayne LaPierreDetails of the agreement were only made public on Tuesday.
Under the agreement, Phillips is barred from serving as a trustee of a New York nonprofit for 10 years and must complete training before he can hold such a position again. He must still pay $2 million in damages to the NRA for his role in Hiding and enabling LaPierre’s wasteful spending for things like exotic getaways and travel on private jets and superyachts.
The agreement implies that Phillips, now retired, is not going to need to attend the second phase of New York Attorney General Letitia James’s civil trial against the NRA and former top executives next week.
Manhattan Judge Joel Cohen is scheduled to rule on the remaining issues within the case starting July 15, including whether former LaPierre and former General Counsel John Frazer needs to be barred from charities within the state.
Among other things, Phillips was accused of approving invoices for LaPierre’s private flights to the Bahamas, facilitating payments to contractors of friends of LaPierre, and allowing an arrangement under which the NRA reimbursed its longtime promoting agency, Ackerman McQueen, for travel, makeup and other expenses it had incurred for LaPierre and his wife.
“For decades, Wilson Phillips oversaw and permitted financial mismanagement and corruption at the NRA, and that is why the jury found him, the NRA and his co-defendants, executives Wayne LaPierre and John Frazer, liable for their misconduct,” James said in an announcement. She said Phillips’ 10-year ban “should serve as an example that my office will hold accountable anyone who abused their power or misappropriated funds.”
A message was left for Phillips’ attorney in search of comment.
In an announcement, NRA attorney William A. Brewer III said: “Today’s announcement distorts the facts and reveals the motives of the New York Attorney General: She wants to put her own interests above those of the NRA members she claims to be protecting.”
“Importantly, the settlement does not secure the monetary compensation that the jury awarded to the NRA for Mr. Phillips’s involvement in schemes that harmed the association. Unfortunately, the agreement does nothing to collect the millions that Mr. Phillips owes,” Brewer said.
The first phase of the trial resulted in February when a Manhattan state court jury found that LaPierre had embezzled thousands and thousands of dollars in NRA funds. The jury said LaPierre must repay the NRA nearly $4.4 million and Phillips owes $2 million.
Jurors concluded that Frazer breached his duties, but not that he owed money or that there have been grounds for his expulsion from the organization. They also concluded that the NRA improperly managed its assets, omitted or misrepresented information on its tax returns and violated whistleblower protections under New York law.
A 3rd co-defendant, LaPierre’s former chief of staff Joshua Powell, reached an agreement with James’ office shortly before the trial began in January. Powell, who wrote of “staggering” waste and corruption in his 2020 book “Inside the NRA,” agreed to testify at trial, pay the NRA $100,000 and forgo further charitable activities.
LaPierre announced his resignation on the eve of the trial. In May, the NRA selected Doug Hamlin, the manager director of its publications division, as his successor. At the identical time, Frazer was fired as general counsel but stays the NRA’s corporate secretary. Phillips retired in 2018.
James sued the NRA and its executives in 2020 under its authority to research nonprofits registered within the state. She originally desired to dissolve your complete organization, but Cohen reigned in 2022 that the allegations didn’t justify a “corporate death penalty.”
The trial solid a highlight on the leadership, organizational culture and funds of the powerful lobbying group that was founded in New York City greater than 150 years ago to advertise shooting sports and grew right into a political force that influenced each federal laws and presidential elections.
In the second phase of the method, James is in search of the appointment of an independent monitor to oversee the management of the NRA’s charitable assets.
James also desires to bar LaPierre from holding leadership positions at charities operating in New York and prohibit the NRA and Frazer from raising funds on behalf of charities operating within the state.
“New Yorkers have a right to know that when they support a nonprofit, their donations are being used to fulfill its mission and are not being wasted on generous perks for employees or cronies,” James said.
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Associated Press reporter Anthony Izaguirre in Albany, New York, contributed to this report.
