Anaheim’s Chamber of Commerce – an organization deeply involved in one of Orange County’s largest corruption scandals – will be closing at the end of the month years after federal agents detailed Disneyland resort interests’ outsized influence over city hall.

The closure comes roughly three years after the Chamber’s former CEO Todd Ament pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges after FBI agents described him as the ringleader of a group of powerful insiders who controlled public affairs and policymaking through elected officials at City Hall.

[Read: Anaheim Chamber CEO Todd Ament Pleads Guilty to Fraud Charges, Could Face Decades in Federal Prison]

Anaheim city spokesman Mike Lyster said in a Tuesday email the city respects the decision to close the chamber and the city itself helps support local businesses.

“We appreciate reform efforts in recent months to move beyond the issues that came to light in 2022, and we would welcome a normal, healthy relationship with a chamber of commerce in our city,” Lyster wrote.

“Our Economic Development Department already plays a major role supporting Anaheim businesses and will continue to do so in the months ahead.”

As first reported by the Orange County Register, the chamber’s current CEO Jerry Jordan notified employees on Friday that the chamber will be permanently shutting down at the end of April. 

Jordan and other employees didn’t respond to questions Tuesday morning. 

Anaheim City Council Members did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday.

It’s unclear how many employees will be laid off. 

As of Tuesday afternoon, the chamber hadn’t filed a layoff notice – known as a WARN letter – to the Employment Development Department of California. 

The chambers’ end also comes amid a string of recent developments in a host of investigations sparked by the corruption probe that surfaced in May 2022 and tanked the proposed sale of Angel Stadium.

Former Mayor Harry Sidhu – an architect of the now canned land sale – was sentenced in March to two months in prison, a year of supervised release and fined $55,000 for destroying records about the sale and lying to federal investigators about providing a team consultant critical negotiation information. 

[Read: Disgraced Former Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu Sentenced to Two Months in Prison]

The expected shutdown of the chamber also comes after executives with the city’s tourism bureau agreed to pay Anaheim back over $3 million from a $6.5 million COVID bailout given to Visit Anaheim at the onset of the pandemic to market the Disneyland resort and book conventions at a time when the resort was closed indefinitely. 

City hired investigators would later conclude that $1.5 million from the bailout was diverted to a chamber-controlled nonprofit as part of a conspiracy and a state audit would conclude the tourism bureau never needed the bailout.

[Read: Tourism Bureau to Repay Anaheim $3 Million From Controversial Pandemic Bailout]

State auditors also found that the Chamber of Commerce improperly used tourism tax dollars given to them by Visit Anaheim as part of a subcontract unbeknownst to city leaders to lobby elected officials.

The Chamber of Commerce 

Under Ament’s leadership, critics and local watchdogs say the chamber started to convert from a business interest group into a political machine, gaining more influence over city hall and its leaders.

[Read: What Made Anaheim’s Chamber Tick?]

Prior to the scandal, the chamber had scored lucrative, no-bid contracts with City Hall – including a promotion program funded with $500,000 in federal COVID bailout money in 2020.

They also got a no-bid $425,000 contract in 2019, spearheaded by Sidhu, to promote business throughout the city. The chamber-created Anaheim First group was given a $250,000 contract to conduct a citywide study on neighborhood needs.

In July 2022 – two months after revelations of an FBI corruption probe – Lyster told Voice of OC that there were no current contracts with the chamber and any previous ones had expired.

On Tuesday, Lyster said city officials have supported the chamber in recent months not financially but through “chamber business openings, lunches and other events.”

According to state auditors, the Chamber also got over $4.4 million in tourism tax dollars between 2010-2023 as part of a subcontract from Visit Anaheim.

That subcontract was cancelled in September 2023.

Amid the loss in contracts, there has also been a couple of changes in leadership since the corruption scandal.

Laura Cunningham took over the reins of the chamber after Ament but quietly left the CEO role last year amid numerous questions over how involved Cunningham was with the past corruption called out in recent investigations.

[Read: Anaheim Chamber of Commerce Bleeds Leadership in Wake of Corruption Scandal]

Jordan took over the role in spring of 2024 after Cunningham took a job at the Irvine Ranch Water District.

​​Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @ElattarHosam.