Why isn’t the Idaho Falls Chamber of Commerce talking about the resignation of its former CEO?
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IDAHO FALLS — After the resignation of their chief executive officer, the Greater Idaho Falls Chamber of Commerce has been tight-lipped about the reasons and allegations that accompanied his departure.
On July 3, the Greater Idaho Falls Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors accepted the resignation of Paul Baker as its chief executive officer.
Since then, EastIdahoNews.com has attempted to reach out to Baker and the board to provide more context on the resignation and to respond to public allegations.
It is unclear what the exact reasons were for Baker’s resignation, but his sudden departure from the chamber came after weeks of allegations of financial impropriety and late business filings with the Secretary of State.
A local podcast, IFAF, hosted by Mike Nelson and Karley Morgan, first brought light to the rumors. In multiple episodes, the podcasters read questions from an alleged and unnamed whistleblower who claims Baker may have misappropriated funds from the chamber, among other allegations.
On July 16, we reached out to the chamber on Facebook via a comment, asking if the Board of Directors would make themselves available to speak with a reporter about the resignation of Baker. We also wanted to know about an internal audit being conducted in response to rumors of apparent misappropriation of funds.
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“To date, the Board has not found any evidence that Chamber funds have been misappropriated. The Board remains committed to the Chamber’s mission of serving its members and supporting a strong business community,” says a news release from the chamber. “Chamber operations will continue uninterrupted as we move forward with a leadership transition and an independent audit.”
Initially, the board agreed to come in for an interview with a reporter on Tuesday, July 21, to discuss the online rumors and confirm if there was any truth to allegations made about Baker.
On Tuesday, board member Ryan Joos called to cancel the interview, citing hesitancy among some other board members, but said they may be able to speak later in the week.
EastIdahoNews.com called and texted Joos multiple times over the next five days to confirm whether the board was open to an interview, but did not receive a response.
Over the past couple of weeks, questions have been raised about differences between an 2024 Annual Report shown to the Board of Directors, and the Form 990 filed with the Internal Revenue Service from the same year.
The annual report is presented to the board each year to explain the organization’s financial standing for the most recent tax year. Form 990 is required of tax-exempt organizations and nonexempt charitable trusts to provide their financial information to the government, donors, and the public.
As Nelson pointed out in his podcast, there appears to be a significant discrepancy between what the board was told about the chamber’s revenue, expenses, and other amounts and what was reported to the IRS.
EastIdahoNews.com compared the two documents, and it appears the board was told that for the 2024 tax year, their revenue was $412,588 higher than what was reported to the IRS.
The expenses also appear to be $283,461.82 higher than those reported to the IRS. Other numbers also appear to differ between the reports.
On top of fraud allegations, EastIdahoNews.com also learned that in March, the chamber was without a legal business license for nearly a month, according to the Idaho Secretary of State’s website. Because we have been unable to speak with the chamber about it, it is unclear whether membership fees were still being collected at this time.
No criminal charges have been filed against Baker for any of the allegations.
EastIdahoNews.com will continue to reach out to the chamber for comment, and will update if we receive one.