LANSING, Mich. (Tribune News Service) — Any remaining grant funding yet to be disbursed to a Metro Detroit businesswoman who spent $4,500 in taxpayer dollars on a coffeemaker will be blocked under a spending bill the Michigan Senate Appropriations Committee approved Wednesday.

The supplemental budget bill includes language directing the State Budget Office to lapse the remaining funding for the $20 million grant awarded to Fay Beydoun and Global Link International, a grant that raised eyebrows in the Capitol when The Detroit News reported it had been used on several questionable expenses. The budget language appears to pull back the second $10 million tranche of funding for the nonprofit business incubator organization that Beydoun created after the Legislature appropriated the money in July 2022.

The budget also nixes the remaining funding for a $25 million grant to finance a mid-Michigan health facility tied to a legislative aide of former Republican House Speaker Jason Wentworth.

Both grants are under investigation by Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office.

“My top priority is making sure we make and build upon investments that will improve outcomes for all Michiganders by funding diverse programs and organizations that work toward grassroots and structural change in our communities,” state Sen. Sarah Anthony, chairwoman for the Senate Appropriations Committee, said Wednesday.

“When one of our grantees falls short of those expectations, or shows they do not share in that mission, this Legislature will correct course and put those dollars toward a sounder investment in our people.”

The News reported last month that, as of December, Beydoun had submitted receipts to the state for about $800,000 of the first $10 million tranche she received in the 2023 fiscal year budget. Among the expenses listed were the $4,500 coffeemaker, an $11,000 first class ticket to Budapest, more than $40,000 in furniture and $408,000 in salary for two people over a three month period.

There were also disputes about how the grant was obtained and how it was to be used. Wentworth is named by the State Budget Office and most of those involved with the grant as the sponsor, but last year he denied sponsoring it.

The American Arab Chamber of Commerce has argued it had asked Beydoun, then the group’s executive director, to ask the Legislature for funding for a business accelerator. Instead, the grant was awarded to a nonprofit business accelerator incorporated with the state by Beydoun 10 days after the passage of the annual state budget. Beydoun left the chamber a few weeks after signing an agreement securing the grant and shortly after The News reported in March 2023 on the disputed sponsorship of the grant.

Sharif Hussein, who helped connect Beydoun to Wentworth, said he had expected some sort of role in the nonprofit to provide oversight of the funds but received none.

Both Hussein and chamber Chairman Ahmed Chebbani called for better state oversight of the grant.

Beydoun rejected their claims, arguing Hussein and Chebbani were upset they didn’t receive the grant, had expected her to act as a “mercenary” and were incapable of accepting female leadership.

After The News report ran, Nessel said she would initiate an investigation into the grant based on an FBI referral and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation announced it would increase oversight of high-dollar grant spending.

The MEDC has declined to comment on what steps, if any, it is taking to freeze grant activity while the Global Link grant is under investigation.

The agency had previously said it is bound by the Legislature’s directives when it comes to the grants. The Legislature required Beydoun and others receiving similar legislative grants to submit quarterly reports on spending, but the agency does not audit that spending until the first tranche of cash is spent. In the case of Beydoun, that audit would take place after she spends the first $10 million.

The second state grant whose funding was lapsed involved a $25 million grant for a community health and recreation center in Clare. In that case, a former legislative aide to Wentworth set up a nonprofit organization in June 2022, days before budget passage, that won the $25 million grant from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services seven months later.

The department’s Office of Inspector General examined the grant arrangement and referred the matter to Nessel’s office.

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