State Senator Aric Nesbitt has sent a letter to U.S. Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz requesting a federal investigation into a Michigan Economic Development Corporation grant awarded to a major donor to Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
Nesbitt tells us email records confirm that Fay Beydoun communicated directly with the governor’s office to secure the $20 million grant that was to be used to start a non-profit international business accelerator. In fact, Beydoun hosted a fundraiser for Whitmer in 2021, around the same time she was pursuing the grant.
“It was a major Governor Whitmer donor and fundraiser that started a nonprofit the day before that,” Nesbitt said. “There was an allocation of $20 million for it, and there’s been no sign at all that there’s been anything done to actually go through the programming of what she promised to do.”
Nesbitt has a lot of questions about the situation.
“What did Whitmer know? When did she know it? That was included in her budget, $15 million and then it grew to $20 million, and this non-profit has shown that it’s done really nothing.”
In his letter to Horowitz, Nesbitt wrote, “While Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is conducting a state-level investigation into the grant’s misuse, the potential national security implications and the involvement of foreign officials elevate this matter to a federal concern.” That’s because he says, “Whitmer signed and sent a letter to Qatari officials, encouraging them to communicate off the record with Beydoun,” something he calls troubling because the governor recently traveled internationally.
So far, Nesbitt tells us he’s unaware of any action on the federal level to investigate.
