Tuesday, September 5, 2023

WY Radio: Co-Owner Facing Prison Sentence

The co-owner of the largest group of talk radio and country music stations in Wyoming has pleaded guilty to evading millions of dollars in taxes related to a media M&A advisory business she ran with her husband.

Susan K. Patrick of Cody, Wyoming, admitted last week that she worked to hide $10 million earned by Patrick Communications, a Maryland-based brokerage firm she ran with her husband, Larry Patrick, that advised on the sale of radio and television stations.

She also admitted to falsifying her own tax returns to omit $9.5 million in income she had earned from the business, federal prosecutors in Maryland said. 

The couple co-own Legend Communications, the parent company of Big Horn Basin Media,  which operates 22 radio stations in Wyoming, including several country music and conservative talk radio stations in its larger market towns of Cody, Sheridan and Gillette. 

On its website, Legend describes itself as the largest radio station group in Wyoming.

Legend Communications also has owned stakes in television stations in Los Angeles, Bridgeport, Connecticut and Concord, California.


Susan Patrick
Prosecutors say Susan Patrick hired an accounting firm to prepare taxes for her and Patrick Communications from 2012 through 2015, but then never filed them with the IRS.

When she was later notified that she hadn’t filed her taxes, she insisted she had and then provided the IRS with doctored returns from her business to omit $10 million in revenue the company had earned between 2012-214, prosecutors say. She also allegedly doctored her personal returns to remove $9.5 million in income she had earned for those same years.

By doing so, Patrick evaded paying $2.5 million in taxes she owed, prosecutors say.

Patrick has issued the following statement:

“I am sincerely sorry for the pain and embarrassment that this is causing my family, friends, and all those I’ve worked with including the dedicated people across the state of Wyoming that do such a great job at our radio stations every day to serve their communities. This is a tax obligation that I will be held accountable for based on a very serious lapse of judgement a decade or more ago. I am fully ready to be held accountable and to do whatever I can and need to do to make up for my decisions of the past.”

Patrick is expected to be sentenced in December or possibly early 2024.

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