Fraud allegations against the National Rifle Association should be investigated by a bankruptcy examiner before the group is allowed to reorganize, a former director for the organization argued in an unusual request to the federal court overseeing the case, Bloomberg News reported. Phillip Journey, a Kansas judge and former state legislator, asked a Texas bankruptcy judge to appoint an independent investigator to determine the truth of claims made by New York regulators in a lawsuit. “Former and current board members have grave concerns about the overall propriety and oversight that the NRA’s board used to exercise,” Journey said in the filing yesterday. The board of directors “to this day, has reduced its role to merely that as a ‘figure head.’” Journey served on the NRA’s board of directors from 1995 to 1998, according to the filing. He also spent more than 20 years on the Kansas State Rifle Association’s board. Journey based much of his request on the lawsuit brought by officials in New York and other cases filed around the country. New York Attorney General Letitia James is seeking to dissolve the NRA, arguing misappropriation of money and breach of fiduciary duty. The NRA filed bankruptcy last month in an effort to reorganize and resolve the many lawsuits its faces. The group said it wants to move its corporate charter to Texas because James’s lawsuit is a political attack.
