LANSING — The Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) recently announced the cancellation of a $20 million state grant awarded to Global Link International, an organization headed by Arab American businesswoman Fay Beydoun. The decision came just one day after the agency received a request for information regarding the organization’s expenditures and Beydoun’s activities. MEDC stated there were no reports or records available on the matter, according to a report published by the Detroit News.

In an email to the newspaper, MEDC Media and Communications Manager Otie McKinley confirmed that the grant agreement was terminated on March 18, adding that the agency is no longer obligated to provide updates or reports about the grant. He declined to offer additional details regarding the reasons for the cancellation or who initiated the move.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office opened an investigation into the Global Link International grant in late April 2024, following a referral from the FBI. However, her office’s spokesperson Danny Wimmer declined to comment further, only noting that “the MEDC is fully aware of the attorney general’s concerns regarding the nonprofit organization’s grant.”

The Detroit News reported that Beydoun and her attorney, John Dakmak, did not respond to requests from for comment.

The Michigan legislature approved the $20 million grant for Global Link International (GLI) — founded by Beydoun during her tenure as executive director of the American Arab Chamber of Commerce — as part of a $1 billion spending package in the state’s 2022 budget. The funding included allocations for 114 organizations favored by members of the Republican-controlled legislature at the time.

Though Global Link International was not registered with the state when it received the grant, it was incorporated in Oakland County shortly thereafter. Public records show that Beydoun spent $408,000 on salaries during the first three months after receiving the initial $10 million disbursement, according to a finding by the Detroit News. It was later revealed that the only people on the payroll were Beydoun herself and one other employee.

Additional expenditures from taxpayer funds included:

• $11,000 for Beydoun’s travel to a conference in Budapest,

• $4,500 for a coffee machine,

• $100,000 to sponsor Michigan Tech Week,

• $130,000 in legal and consulting fees in the first nine months of the organization’s operations.

Beydoun also set herself an annual salary of $550,000, and records show she spent $40,000 on furniture — some of which was shipped to her home in Farmington Hills, with the rest delivered to an address in Birmingham, where the nonprofit’s office was allegedly located.

According to the Detroit News, documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request (FOIA) revealed that as of December 2023, Beydoun had spent more than $800,000 from the first $10 million disbursement — even though Global Link International did not exist when the legislatures approved the grant.

The remaining $10 million from the grant was never disbursed, and it is believed that Beydoun still retains several million dollars from the initial allocation approved in 2023 as part of the state budget approved by the legislature, which was a Republican majority at that time, and signed by Governor Whitmer.

Whitmer appointed Beydoun in 2019 to both the Middle Eastern American Affairs Commission and the MEDC Advisory Council, which oversees the distribution of tens of millions of dollars annually in state incentives for both existing and newly formed organizations.

The Global Link International grant first drew public attention in early 2023 after a Detroit News report revealed that the legislature had awarded funding to the organization even though it had not been legally registered. At the time, Beydoun, who sat on MEDC’s advisory council, claimed that then-House Speaker Jason Wentworth, a Republican, was the sponsor of the grant, a claim he denied, despite official budget documents listing him as the project’s sponsor.

At the time of the first disbursement, Beydoun was still serving as executive director of the American Arab Chamber of Commerce. Chamber officials later said the funding was originally intended for the Chamber, but that Beydoun instead created Global Link International, secured the funds in its name and then left the Chamber to lead the new organization, which was registered under her home address in Farmington Hills.

After the Detroit News report exposed the excessive expenditures, Beydoun returned $10,000 of her own money to MEDC as partial reimbursement for the coffee machine and the Budapest trip. She, however, defended her high salary — more than three times that of the governor — by asserting it was comparable to compensation for executives at similarly missioned international organizations.

In 2023, the Democratic-led Michigan House and Senate attempted to recover the grant, but both chambers dropped the effort for unclear reasons, drawing criticism from Republicans. GOP lawmakers pointed to the Global Link case as an example of flaws in the earmark system, but they stopped short of launching a formal investigation through legislative oversight committees.

When asked last month why no investigation had been opened into the grant, House Speaker Matt Hall, a Republican, said he advised the oversight committees to focus on more pressing current issues, such as ending remote work for state employees and eliminating corporate tax incentives.

When asked whether former Speaker Wentworth had pressured him to steer clear of investigating the grant, Hall replied, “No.”

Amid ongoing public criticism, Beydoun offered last year to dissolve the nonprofit, but she continued spending the funds. In her fourth-quarter 2024 report, she claimed Global Link had expanded its operations, growing the number of supported international startups from 48 to 61 and increasing its international partnerships from three to nine.

In response to growing calls for accountability, MEDC hired an external law firm in Lansing last year to provide legal and accounting services related to the matter.

— Reported first by the Detroit News. Edited for style.