The Tullahoma Area Chamber of Commerce is fighting a pair of lawsuits, Executive Director Hope Nunley revealed to the Tullahoma Board of Mayor and Aldermen at their past meeting.

In a memo to the Chamber membership that she read aloud to the city board, Nunley revealed the Chamber is involved in two unrelated lawsuits. One involves a contractual dispute with a former vendor over whether the Chamber was obligated to participate in and pay for additional projects after the business relationship ended. The Chamber declined to comment further when asked for more information.

The other suit is a federal suit in which a company that has filed numerous lawsuits has targeted the local chamber. It was filed back in April of 2025 and continues to languish on the federal court dockets.

The Tarbell Group, LLC is a Virginia-based company that has filed numerous federal qui tam (whistleblower) lawsuits alleging pandemic-era Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan fraud.

The company filed lawsuits accusing dozens of non-profits, chambers of commerce, cemetery organizations, country clubs, yacht clubs, fraternal orders of police, and unions of improperly receiving or seeking forgiveness for PPP loans before they were officially eligible. Other chambers targeted by the unusual group of suits include, but are not limited to, Rogersville-Hawkins County, Spring City and Etowah.

The suits were brought under the False Claims Act, a federal law that allows private citizens or companies to sue on behalf of the U.S. government when they believe federal funds have been fraudulently obtained. Such cases are known as qui tam actions. The private party bringing the suit — called a relator — is entitled to a share of any money recovered if the case succeeds. The Justice Department has declined to intervene in either case but retains the right to do so at a later date upon a showing of good cause, leaving the Tarbell Group to pursue the claims on its own for now.

Nunley said the Chamber’s name was taken from public information during the COVID pandemic.

“The Chamber disputes the allegations in both matters, we have retained legal counsel and are actively disputing both cases,” she said in the statement.

She added there should be no disruption of service due to the suits and hopes to have them taken care of quickly and efficiently.