Michigan AG investigating alleged embezzlement of state grant from the American Arab Chamber

Filed 15h ago · Via Michigan Advance · The Buffoon Desk

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The Bandit

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: The White House · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

Michigan's Attorney General is investigating alleged embezzlement of a $3.4 million state grant awarded to Tejara, a business incubator tied to the American Arab Chamber of Commerce, after former chamber executive director Bilal Hammoud was fired in August. The chamber says it discovered organizational funds could not be accounted for and hired an outside firm to investigate, while the State Budget Office deactivated the grant account and launched its own review.

This follows felony charges brought in May against Fay Beydoun, another former chamber executive director, for allegedly stealing separate Michigan Economic Development Corporation funds for her own project. Hammoud has also resigned from the state's Workforce Development Board, to which Governor Whitmer had appointed him in 2025.

The chamber's board chairman says the organization is committed to transparency and has met with the Attorney General's office; the state says it has a zero tolerance policy for fraud and will pursue recovery of any misused funds.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

Two former executive directors of the same chamber, two separate piles of state money gone missing, and a spokesperson insisting on zero tolerance after the money already walked out the door. Zero tolerance is easy to declare once the account is already drained; the harder trick is noticing before the sequel. The state's oversight here looks less like a locked gate and more like a screen door that keeps needing patched.

Source: Read the original at Michigan Advance → Scored: The Bandit · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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