Guns are displayed inside a store on June 17, 2016 in Lake Barrington, Illinois.
Scott Olson | Getty Images
WASHINGTON – The National Rifle Association said Friday that it has filed for bankruptcy as part of a larger restructuring plan aimed at moving to Texas after New York state had sought the organization’s dissolution for allegedly misappropriating funds.
The gun-rights advocacy group said it would restructure as a Texas nonprofit to exit from what it described as “a corrupt political and regulatory environment in New York,” where it is currently registered.
The NRA did not provide the filing nor disclose relevant financial documents late Friday afternoon. The NRA has not yet responded to CNBC’s request.
“The plan can be summed up quite simply: We are DUMPING New York, and we are pursuing plans to reincorporate the NRA in Texas,” wrote NRA CEO and executive vice president Wayne LaPierre, adding that the move will have “no major changes are expected to the NRA’s operations or workforce.”
In his statement Friday, LaPierre said that the NRA is not insolvent and the move to Texas would make the organization stronger. “We are as financially strong as we have been in years,” he said.
He added that the organization has no plans at this time to move the NRA headquarters from Fairfax, Virginia.
Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president and CEO of the National Rifle Association (NRA).
Lucas Jackson | Reuters
Gun safety organizations characterized the NRA’s decision to file bankruptcy as a “desperate maneuver.”
“Let’s be clear about what’s happening here: The NRA — which is losing power and hemorrhaging money — is now filing for bankruptcy in an attempt to escape legal culpability for years of financial mismanagement and illegal self-dealing,” John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, wrote in a statement Friday.
“This desperate maneuver is a de facto admission of guilt,” he added.
Similarly, Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, said that the NRA could attempt to “run from its years of deception, decadence, and self-dealing, but it can’t hide.”
“The NRA has become a front group for gun manufacturers and a personal piggy bank for its leadership – all while endangering millions of lives. They’ve been out of touch with the American people for decades, and now they’re out of money, too,” Watts said.
New York Attorney General Letitia James wrote in a statement that the state will review the NRA’s filing but added: “We will not allow the NRA to use this or any other tactic to evade accountability and my office’s oversight.”
“The NRA’s claimed financial status has finally met its moral status: bankrupt,” she added.
Last year, James announced that the state was seeking to dissolve the NRA in a lawsuit that accused the organization’s leadership of diverting millions for their own personal use, resulting in a $64 million loss to the organization.
New York State Attorney General, Letitia James
Lucas Jackson | Reuters
“The NRA’s influence has been so powerful that the organization went unchecked for decades while top executives funneled millions into their own pockets,” James said in August. “The NRA is fraught with fraud and abuse, which is why, today, we seek to dissolve the NRA, because no organization is above the law,” she added.
James is asking the court to dissolve the NRA and require each of the current and former executives named in the suit to pay full restitution.
NRA president Carolyn Meadows said in a statement at the time, that the suit is “a baseless, premeditated attack on our organization and the Second Amendment freedoms it fights to defend.”
The suit is another step in a long-running battle between New York and the gun-rights group, which has been chartered in the state since 1871.
CNBC’s Tucker Higgins and Dan Mangan contributed to this report from New York.