DETROIT, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Former Gov. Gretchen Whitmer appointee, Democratic party supporter, and businesswoman Fay Beydoun faces 16 criminal counts tied to the way she allegedly spent and documented expenses from a $20 million state taxpayer-funded grant.

Beydoun worked as the director of the American Arab Chamber of Commerce and served as a Whitmer appointee on the board of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC). The group asked the Michigan Legislature to administer the grant to Beydoun’s now defunct nonprofit. The MEDC terminated the grant in 2025.

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Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, who once referred to the MEDC as a “quasi-agency,” wrote in an affidavit that the charges include larceny by conversion, uttering and publishing, and conducting a criminal enterprise.

“Instead of using those funds for the legally intended purpose of establishing an international business accelerator, Beydoun used them to pay for personal expenses, and then lied when reporting on how she used the funds,” Special Agent Kyle Kolka wrote in the affidavit, according to reports.

Some of Beydoun’s expenses included a $4,500 coffeemaker and an $11,000 first-class ticket to Budapest.