The founder of Jackson Hole Community Radio (JHCR) will not be paid back money he said he loaned the station to support its start-up and operational expenses.
That’s the result of a ruling by the Wyoming Supreme Court, reaffirming a lower court’s finding of summary judgment in the station’s favor.
James Tallichet sued the station in 2023, saying the $219,685 he gave it was a loan, not a contribution.
“I think it's a travesty of justice. It is unjust from every which way,” said Inga Parsons, Tillechet’s lawyer. “ KHOL received, at the net, over $200,000 from my client, who put that station on his back. There would not be a KHOL but for him.”
The nonprofit community station, which also goes by its call sign KHOL, does not deny receiving the funds. But Executive Director Emily Cohen said no loan agreement was ever signed.
“I think there's no doubt that he put a lot of himself and his money into this station. Unfortunately, the law views a donation and a loan – they're different, and you have to document,” Cohen said.
Tallichet incorporated the station in 1995, according to court documents. As president over the next decade-plus, he worked to secure construction permits, obtain nonprofit status, and license and find donors for the station.
Minutes from a board meeting in 2007 refer to a “loan” and “22K” with notes that Tallichet distributed a sheet of paper to spur discussion of loan terms and details. The paper indicated a two-year loan to begin on March 28, 2007 and carry a 4.4% interest rate. But Tallichet said he “never followed through” on drafting the agreement. Tallichet agreed there is no written agreement for any loan between him and JHCR.
But the station’s tax filings from 2008 indicate a loan from Tallichet to the station with a principal amount of $101,533, with $131,533 as the balance due. A tax form was checked “Yes” under “Approved by board or committee” and “Yes” under “Written Agreement.” The interest rate was marked as zero.
Tallichet and an accountant prepared those tax documents, but Tallichet denies that he told the accountant to check “Yes” under the “Written agreement” category.
Tax documents from 2009 through 2015, when Tallichet left the station, continued to identify the money Tallichet provided to the station as a loan. “When the station’s Form 990 was filed in 2015, the document indicated the original loan amount was now $301,533, with $219,685 as the balance due on the loan,” court documents say.
“Mr. Tallichet paid himself $81,848 from station funds as a ‘repayment’ on the alleged debt. Around this time, the Board discovered Mr. Tallichet had been claiming the contributions as a loan on the station’s Form 990s,” the court document continues.
Parsons said Tallichet gave the station those funds in order to secure a broadcast license under a timecrunch.
Tallichet maintains that if the funds weren’t a loan, he should receive a contribution letter, which would allow him to claim the amount as a deduction on his taxes.
“It makes no sense,” Parsons said. “Either it's a contribution or it's a loan. And if you look at all of their tax filings, they treated it as a loan, signed by their board. My client left in 2015, and they continued to treat it as a loan on their taxes up until they did some auditing and they wrote it off, thinking that the statute of limitations had passed, which in fact it hadn't. That's what I find just mind-boggling.”
Parsons said the ruling could have a “chilling effect on those people who do what it takes to start up organizations.”
“The Wyoming Supreme Court's decision essentially creates a purgatory of not a loan but not a gift, and my client is paying the price. “
Cohen said the amount Tallichet was claiming amounted to roughly a third of the station’s current operating budget.
She said having to pay out that amount would have been a “big loss.” Last year, the station lost 25% of its operating budget when Congress defunded the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).
“When I started here at the station, our budget was less than this amount. Our budget was $150,000 in 2019, and now we're around $700,000. So we've grown immensely, and a lot of that was from CPB support, but also our community stepped up to support us, especially as we grew this newsroom,” she said.
Cohen called Tallichet a pioneer and a visionary.
“ He wanted it to be a place that connected people that provided news and information for our community. We're the only community radio station in the whole state,” she said. “I think his vision is very much the vision that we are implementing now.”
Parsons said Tallichet is still hoping for a contribution letter.
