Fay Beydoun, 62, of Farmington Hills was arraigned on Friday, November 13, in the 47th District Court in Farmington Hills on three additional felony charges tied to the alleged theft of funds from a $20 million state legislative grant awarded to Global Link International, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced. Beydoun was already facing 16 felony counts filed in May, so the new arraignment brings the total against her to 19 felony counts.
Source: Michigan Attorney General (official release, Nov. 13, 2026)
The three new charges, transaction by transaction
Prosecutors allege that in July 2023 Beydoun spent more than $10,000 in Global Link International funds to purchase high-end furniture that was never intended for use by the organisation. That allegation is charged as one count of larceny by conversion, a felony carrying up to five years in prison.
Source: Farmington Voice
The attorney general further alleges that in August 2023 Beydoun used $100,000 in grant funds to purchase a membership in the Michigan Founders Fund, and that in July 2025 she transferred $500,000 from Global Link International to fund her own legal defence against the criminal charges. Those two allegations are charged as two counts of larceny from a person, each a 10-year felony — one covering the attempt to have the organisation pay her legal expenses, the other the Founders Fund payment, which prosecutors say was made for personal reasons. Together, the three transactions total at least $610,000, according to the allegations.
"These newly charged allegations reflect the continued investigative efforts ongoing in my office, and a broader extent of Beydoun's alleged expenses made with state grant funding. This case remains a top priority within our Financial Crimes Division, and, though it won't occur during my time in office, we look forward to bringing this case to trial."
How a $20 million accelerator grant became a criminal case
Beydoun secured what the attorney general calls a "Michigan enhancement grant" inside Public Act 166 of 2022, the law that funded the State of Michigan for fiscal year 2023. The money was meant to establish and operate a global business accelerator in Oakland County that would attract and relocate businesses to Michigan, and it was to be administered by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC). At the time she secured the grant, Beydoun herself served on the MEDC Executive Committee. The attorney general alleges that no business ever relocated to Michigan through Global Link International's efforts, and that Beydoun instead used the funds for personal gain while maintaining a $550,000 annual salary.
The Department of Attorney General opened its investigation into the grant in 2024. The MEDC terminated Global Link International's grant on March 18, 2025, following reports of financial irregularities — yet the alleged $500,000 transfer for legal-defence costs is dated July 2025, months after the grant had been terminated and after the first criminal charges had been filed. In September 2025, the attorney general's department froze more than $6.3 million in grant funds held in bank accounts connected to Beydoun.
The 16 counts she already faced
Friday's arraignment is the second wave of the case, not the start of it. The charges filed in May included counts of larceny by conversion and uttering and publishing, along with conducting a criminal enterprise, an offence that by itself carries a potential 20-year prison sentence. The new counts also extend the period covered by the case: local court reporting from Friday's hearing noted that the amended complaint pushes the alleged conduct through 2025, well beyond the window covered by the original charges.
What Beydoun's side says
Beydoun is presumed innocent unless and until she is proven guilty — a caution the attorney general's own release prints at the foot of its announcement. Her lawyers at Flood Law have previously said the firm would "save our best arguments for the courtroom" rather than litigate the allegations in public, as reported by Farmington Voice. Nothing in Friday's announcement records a plea or a defence response to the three new counts specifically.
Why this case reaches beyond Farmington Hills
Enhancement grants of this kind are inserted into the state budget by legislators rather than awarded through open competition, and the Global Link International grant was one of more than 200 such earmarks, together worth nearly $1 billion, in Michigan's 2022 budget, according to Farmington Voice's court reporting. For taxpayers in Oakland County and across Michigan — including the county's large immigrant business community, among them Punjabi entrepreneurs across metro Detroit — the case has become a test of how closely Lansing watches money after it leaves the treasury. A $20 million grant, a state agency that terminated it only after irregularities were reported, and more than $6.3 million frozen in bank accounts are the numbers that will follow this case into court.
What happens next
Local reporting from Friday's scheduling hearing said the new charges have delayed Beydoun's preliminary examination, which had been scheduled for January; no replacement date was announced in the source material. Attorney General Nessel has said the investigation remains ongoing and that she expects the case to go to trial after her time in office. Awaaz Punjab will follow the preliminary examination when a new date is set. All of the conduct described above remains allegation, not proven fact.