LANSING — The Michigan Attorney General’s Office executed a search warrant Wednesday, June 18, at the Lansing offices of the Michigan Economic Development Corp. and a home in Farmington Hills, officials confirmed.
Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office would not disclose details about the nature of the investigation, but the Free Press confirmed that investigators were at the Farmington Hills home of a major MEDC grant recipient on the morning of June 18.
“Today, the Michigan Department of Attorney General executed search warrants on the downtown Lansing headquarters of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and a private residence in Farmington Hills, in furtherance of an ongoing investigation,” spokesman Danny Wimmer said in an email. “At this time, we are not able to provide any further information.”
There was no overt police presence outside the offices on North Washington Square early in the afternoon of June 18, but a security guard at the front desk told the Detroit Free Press that all MEDC employees had vacated the building.
Otie McKinley, a spokesman for the MEDC, called the raid “unwarranted and unnecessary” in a June 18 statement.
“MEDC has been fully and voluntarily cooperating with the Attorney General’s investigation for more than two years,” McKinley said.
McKinley declined to comment on the nature of the investigation.
In Oakland County, neighbors told the Detroit Free Press they saw Farmington Hills police vehicles and at least one unmarked police vehicle outside the residence of Fay Beydoun, the president of the nonprofit corporation Global Link International, around mid-morning on June 18.
One neighbor said their son saw file boxes outside the home, which a man who answered the door confirmed was Beydoun’s residence. The neighbors did not want to be identified because they have a good relationship with Beydoun.
The Detroit News reported in April 2024 that Nessel’s office confirmed it had opened an investigation into a $20 million grant the MEDC awarded to Global Link International, whose corporate address is listed at the same Farmington Hills residence. Beydoun has not been charged with any crime.
Although the grant was administered by the MEDC, it was initiated as a legislative earmark in the state budget passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature and signed into law by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2022.
Beydoun is a former vice chair of the Michigan Democratic Party who, at the time the grant was awarded in 2022, was a member of the MEDC executive committee. The News reported that the nonprofit’s early expenditures from the grant proceeds included a $4,500 coffee maker, an $11,000 first-class plane ticket, and $408,000 in salaries to two people over three months. Beydoun has defended the expenditures in statements to The News but could not be reached for comment June 18.
Farmington Hills police did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
MEDC is housed within the state’s Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity. The agency oversees the administration of corporate subsidy programs aimed at retaining and attracting business in Michigan and has an office that leads initiatives to grow the state’s population.
Whitmer is currently in Australia with MEDC CEO Quentin L. Messer Jr. as part of an economic development trip, according to a June 16 news release from her office.
(This story was updated with additional information.)
Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan AG raids state agency, Farmington Hills residence
Reporting by Paul Egan and Clara Hendrickson, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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