A metro-Detroit businesswoman at the center of a scandal over a state budget earmark is now facing felony charges.
In 2023, a nonprofit Fay Beydoun ran received $10-million in grant money from the state.
The money was supposed to bring in international business. But the Attorney General’s office accuses Beydoun of misspending over a million of it on her own expenses.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel says this case shows why the agency that oversaw Beydoun’s grant, and many others, needs more oversight.
“I’m sure there are many times where you could point to a project and say, ‘Yes, that is serving the public, and it’s a good use of tax dollars.’ It’s just that when that happens, it just happens to be a coincidence.”
Nessel says there aren’t enough safeguards at the “Michigan Economic Development Corporation.”
Beydoun’s lawyers are maintaining her innocence. They’re calling the saga a “public spectacle.”
