The new details revealed about $600,000 stolen by former Michigan House employees

Lansing — Anne and Robert Minard, two aides to former Michigan Republican House Speaker Lee Chatfied, “stole more than $600,000” from political fundraising accounts, Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office said last week in a filing the court.

The Democratic attorney general unveiled 21 criminal charges against the Minards in December, which included embezzlement and falsifying records. Their preliminary hearings, in which a judge will determine whether there is enough evidence for the charges to go to trial, are scheduled to begin Aug. 22 in Ingham County District Court in East Lansing.

Ahead of those exams, the attorney general’s office filed a 42-page memo on its investigation into Anne Minard, a Lansing fundraiser who served as Chatfield’s director of external affairs, and Robert Minard, a political consultant who he was Chatfield’s chief of staff.

The document provided the most detailed information yet on how the Minards, a Clinton County couple, allegedly used money from political action committees and nonprofits for personal expenses and how they took advantage of disclosure rules in Lansing. Nessel’s office initially accused the Minards of wrongfully obtaining $525,000 by taking advantage of lax state transparency laws.

“Using a sophisticated scheme of fraudulent reimbursements, double billing, misrepresentation of expenses, and falsification of records, defendants Robert Minard and Anne Minard stole more than $600,000 from nonprofit organizations and independent and political action committees,” the prosecutor’s memo said generic.

Chatfield, a former Republican lawmaker from Levering who was known as a prolific fundraiser, held the top position in the Michigan House in 2019 and 2020. In April, Nessel unsealed 13 separate criminal charges against Chatfield, saying he blatantly misused nonprofit dollars to pay from his personal credit card and fund purchases from wineries and luxury stores.

Chatfield pleaded not guilty in May.

The Minards were among Chatfield’s most important political operatives during his time as speaker. Anne Minard helped oversee her fundraising accounts, which stretched into the millions of dollars, four political action committees (PACs) that could raise unlimited amounts of money from donors, and several nonprofit organizations.

In Michigan, lawmakers can operate as many PACs as they want and use nonprofits to raise money from undisclosed donors. Also, despite being connected to public officials, nonprofits must disclose some details about how they spend their money.

Anne Minard’s attorney, Gerald Gleeson, declined to comment on the new filing from Nessel’s office.

“I will wait to speak in the courtroom,” Gleeson said in an email on Tuesday.

Attorney Robert Harrison, who represents Robert Minard, said the attorney general’s office is improperly trying to turn accounting mistakes and failure to file receipts into criminal charges. Dykema attorneys advised the Minard family’s accounts, Harrison said.

“I think they’re wrong,” Harrison said of the attorney general’s claims. “It’s as simple as that.”

But the attorney general’s new memo said the Minards underreported their income on their tax returns by $672,429.

Moving money

Chatfield’s main fundraising nonprofit was called the Peninsula Fund. She reported raising $1.3 million from undisclosed donors in her two years as speaker: 2019 and 2020.

An annual filing with the state of Michigan listed Anne Minard as Peninsula Fund’s president in 2018, and a filing with the group’s Internal Revenue Service described her as its principal officer in 2017.

In a three-month period from Nov. 16, 2020, to Feb. 17, 2021, Anne Minard made $64,683 in payments on her personal Peninsula Fund credit card, according to the attorney general’s memo.

About 88 percent of her personal credit card payments during that time came from the nonprofit, which was supposed to focus on promoting social welfare and could not be used for anyone’s personal benefit. Only $6,536 in credit card payments came from Anne Minard’s bank account, the memo said.

But during the three-month period, the credit card had $14,109 in spending that was “obviously personal in nature,” according to the Attorney General’s office. Those expenses included a $1,000 personal medical procedure at Red Cedar Surgery Center in Haslett, the purchase of a wine barrel-themed bongo set from Guitar Center and a $7,806 purchase from Gucci.

“The Gucci transaction was associated with the purchase of four items: a $3,300 purse, a $3,400 purse, a $295 card holder, and a $370 scarf,” the attorney general’s memo said.

The Attorney General’s Office said the movement of money from the Peninsula Fund to Anne Minard’s personal credit card was the reason for the charge of embezzlement by the nonprofit organization.

In all, Anne Minard faces 12 felony charges in the alleged criminal enterprise, while her husband faces nine felony charges, according to court records.

The charge of conducting a criminal enterprise is among the most serious charges, punishable by up to 20 years behind bars.

For a better Michigan?

The Attorney General’s Office also alleges that a PAC connected to Minard, called Working Together for a Better Michigan, filed false campaign finance disclosures while the Minards diverted approximately $470,755 from the PAC.

The Minards converted $470,755 of Working Together money to their own use by depositing payments into their consulting firm’s bank account and moving the money from the consulting firm’s account to their personal bank account, according to the Attorney General’s office.

Minard’s consulting firm was called Victor Strategies, or VS.

“There are no known contractual agreements between VS and WTFBM to support the payments,” the attorney general’s memo said. “There do not appear to be any invoices from VS to WTFBM requesting payment for services rendered.”

The PAC was formed in June 2019. Its treasurer was Shannon Huver, who is the sister of Anne Minard, according to the notice. However, Hoover did not handle any of the financial transactions for Working Together for a Better Michigan, the memo said.

The PAC reported raising $1.5 million in 2020, with about $1.3 million coming from committees related to Chatfield.

On July 3, the secretary of state’s office sent a letter to Hoover and Chatfield asking them to explain why a “significant number” of contributions and expenses were left out of required campaign finance disclosures.

The secretary of state’s office sent similar letters to Chatfield’s other committees after reviewing bank records obtained by the attorney general’s office through the criminal investigation.

The letter about “Working Together for a Better Michigan” said that in one instance, the PAC wrote a $338,762 check to Victor Strategies in November 2020. But in the disclosures, WTFBM described the expenses as 14 different smaller expenses for a printing company.

The 14 records were “created to mask a large check for VS,” the attorney general’s memo said.

The secretary of state’s office gave Hoover and Chatfield 15 business days starting July 3 to respond to his letter. But no response was posted in the commission’s file as of Tuesday.

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The new details revealed about $600,000 stolen by former Michigan House employees

Moving money

For a better Michigan?

By Matthew. Jr

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The new details revealed about $600,000 stolen by former Michigan House employees

Moving money

For a better Michigan?

By Matthew. Jr

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