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Former National Rifle Association (NRA) CEO Wayne LaPierre has misspent millions of dollars of the organisation's money has determined.
Mr LaPierre used the funds to pay for an extravagant lifestyle that included exotic getaways and trips on private planes and superyachts.
On Friday the jury ordered Mr LaPierre, 74, to repay almost $US4.4 million ($6.7 million) to the powerful gun rights group that he led for three decades.
It also ordered the NRA's retired finance chief, Wilson Phillips, to pay back the group $US2 million.
Jurors additionally found that the NRA omitted or misrepresented information in its tax filings and violated New York law by failing to adopt a whistleblower policy.
Mr LaPierre sat stone-faced in the front row of the courtroom as the verdict was read aloud.
New York Attorney-General Letitia James, who campaigned on investigating the NRA's not-for-profit status, declared the verdict a "major victory".
"In New York, you cannot get away with corruption and greed, no matter how powerful or influential you think you may be," Ms James said in a post on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
"Everyone, even the NRA and Wayne LaPierre, must play by the same rules."
The outcome is another blow to the powerful group, which has been beset by financial troubles and dwindling membership in recent years.
Mr LaPierre announced his resignation the night before the trial.
NRA general counsel John Frazer was also a defendant in the case. Although the jury found that he violated his duties, it did not order him to repay any money.
The jury found the NRA violated state laws protecting whistleblowers who raised concerns about the organisation, a cohort that included the group's former president, Oliver North.
The jury did find Mr LaPierre liable for $US5.4 million but determined he had already paid back a little over $US1 million
Ms James also wants the three men to be banned from serving in leadership positions at any charitable organisations that conduct business in New York.
A judge will decide that question during the next phase of the state Supreme Court trial.
Another former NRA executive turned whistleblower, Joshua Powell, settled with the state last month, agreeing to testify at the trial, pay the NRA $US100,000 and forgo further involvement with non-profits.
Ms James sued the NRA and its executives in 2020 under her authority to investigate not-for-profits registered in the state.
She originally sought to have the entire organisation dissolved, but Manhattan Judge Joel M. Cohen ruled in 2022 that the allegations did not warrant a "corporate death penalty".
The trial, which began last month, cast a spotlight on the leadership, organisational culture and finances of the powerful lobbying group.
Since being founded more than 150 years ago in New York City to promote rifle skills, the group has grown into a political juggernaut that has influenced federal law and presidential elections.
Mr LaPierre had led the NRA's day-to-day operations since 1991, acting as its face and becoming one of the country's most influential figures in shaping gun policy.
During the trial, state lawyers argued that he dodged financial disclosure requirements while treating the NRA as his personal piggy bank, liberally dipping into its coffers for African safaris and other questionable expenditures.
His lawyer cast the trial as a political witch-hunt by Ms James.
Mr LaPierre billed the NRA more than $US11 million for private jet flights and spent more than $US500,000 on eight trips to the Bahamas over a three-year span, state lawyers said.
He also authorised $US135 million in NRA contracts for a vendor whose owners showered him with free trips to the Bahamas, Greece, Dubai and India, as well as access to a 33-metre yacht.
Mr LaPierre claimed he had not realised the travel tickets, hotel stays, meals, yacht access and other luxury perks counted as gifts, and that the private jet flights were necessary for his safety.
But he conceded he had wrongly expensed private flights for his family and accepted vacations from vendors doing business with the NRA without disclosing them.
Among those who testified at the trial was Mr North, a one-time NRA president and former National Security Council military aide best known for his central role in the Iran-Contra scandal of the 1980s.
Mr North resigned from the NRA in 2019 but said he was pushed out after raising allegations of financial irregularities.
After reporting a $US36 million deficit in 2018 fuelled largely by misspending, the NRA cut back on longstanding programs that had been core to its mission, including training and education, recreational shooting and law-enforcement initiatives.
In 2021, it filed for bankruptcy and sought to incorporate in Texas instead of New York, but a judge rejected the move, saying it was an attempt to duck Ms James's lawsuit.
Despite its recent woes, the NRA remains a political force. Republican presidential hopefuls flocked to its annual convention last year and former US president Donald Trump spoke at an NRA event earlier this month — his eighth speech to the association, it said.
AP