Former House GOP staffers charged with embezzlement and conducting a criminal enterprise

Updated, 7:11 p.m., 12/21/23

Two top aides to former Michigan House Speaker Lee Chatfield were charged with several felonies apiece by the Attorney General’s Office on Thursday for what the office is saying was a repeated pattern of illegal activity for them to fraudulently obtain more than half-million dollars.

The two individuals charged Thursday are married couple Robert and Anne Minard of Bath Township. Robert Minard served as the Republican’s chief of staff and Anne Minard was the external affairs director. 

Police investigating ex-Speaker Lee Chatfield for allegedly sexually assaulting child

Anne Minard faces 12 felonies and Robert Minard faces nine felonies, including embezzlement, conducting a criminal enterprise and filing a false tax return. Some of the charges carry a 20 year maximum prison sentence.

“These are concrete abuses in black and white, so much so that in some instances, it’s obvious that they were counting on the fact that no one would ever review it,” Nessel said at a news conference in Lansing on Thursday.

The Minards falsified records, double billed and misrepresented expenses, Nessel said.

Chatfield served as House speaker from 2019 until 2020 when he was term-limited.

Police began investigating Chatfield in late 2021 after his sister-in-law reported that he had been sexually assaulting her for over a decade, starting when she was 14 or 15 years old and a student at Michigan Christian Academy in Burt Lake, where Chatfield used to be a teacher and his father is the superintendent.

“… Mr. Chatfield vehemently denies the allegations by his sister-in-law of any assaultive conduct during their years-long consensual adult affair,” Chatfield’s attorney, Mary Chartier said in September 2022 when the Attorney General’s Office took over the investigation and folded in reports of misappropriation of finances that were connected to the former speaker.

Investigations into possible financial misdeeds and criminal sexual conduct by Chatfield remain ongoing, Nessel said.

“In these roles, the Minards had access to a vast network of well-funded nonprofit, corporate and political groups which were tied to the speaker’s political activities,” Nessel said. “The Minards held leadership roles in both the House of Representatives and their independent consulting firm. They are Lansing powerbrokers, their clients and undertakings boast tremendous access in the realm of government and campaign politics … and have the ability to sway public policy.” 

Nessel said investigators assert that the Minards misappropriated funds from 501(c)4 social welfare nonprofit organizations, state campaign committees, an independent political action committee, a lobbying firm as well as an advocacy group. The office is prosecuting on the basis that they believe the Minards performed various intentional acts to funnel money into their own pocket including falsifying adjusted gross income on their 2020 taxes.

The value of the funds total at least $525,000 just from 2018 to 2020, Nessel said. Meanwhile, they legally made $1.5 million during that time period.

The pair will be arraigned in an East Lansing court at 9 a.m. Jan. 3. 

It’s been nearly two years since authorities began an investigation into Chatfield, which began with sexual assault accusations. Thursday marks the first charges in the case and do not pertain to criminal sexual conduct. 

“I understand that I’ve expressed … publicly … our intention and ambition to have this investigation concluded by the end of this year,” Nessel said. “This case, as you know, is one of many public integrity investigations that my department has been handling and I believe it’s inherent to public good to set some sort of expectations on when a conclusion can be anticipated, but unfortunately, due to the voluminous amounts of evidence discovered that included millions of documents, emails, record, pieces of data, and procedural rules on gathering the massive number of documents we’ve received, the investigation cannot conclude by years end.”

Still, the leaders of the Legislature, Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks (D-Grand Rapids) and House Speaker Joe Tate (D-Detroit), issued a joint statement saying, “This is a long-awaited day.” 

“These charges are the first of what we expect to be multiple steps in addressing the unparalleled level of corruption that was celebrated in Lee Chatfield’s inner circle. This ring of uniquely bad actors defrauded citizens and supporters for personal gain, committing serious crimes in the process for which they are now charged.”

Sen. Jeremy Moss (D-Southfield), who chairs the Senate Elections and Ethics Committee and has led efforts to get financial transparency legislation passed, committed in a news release Thursday to address corruption within government.

“As we all watch this sordid saga of Lee Chatfield play out, it’s been incredibly disheartening to find out more about how his orbit gamed our political system and took advantage of others for their own personal gain. I applaud Attorney General Nessel for bringing the evidence to court to hold those accountable for their crimes,” he said.

While the investigation continues, Nessel said members of her office will be analyzing the shortcomings in Michigan’s campaign finance laws that allow bad actors to financially gain from embezzlement in government. At the conclusion of the investigation, Nessel said she will make legislative policy suggestions for lawmakers to consider to strengthen that area of Michigan’s laws.

Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, said in a Thursday news release she looks forward to collaborating on such reforms with Nessel’s office in order to restore trust in the elected officials and the state’s democratic processes. 

“Michigan’s inadequate government ethics laws leave us vulnerable to abuses like those alleged in the charges announced today,” Benson said. “We know Michigan voters want better transparency and accountability from their leaders.”

Nessel said she wanted to be clear: “This was no accounting error, but a repeated pattern of illegal activity” for which Michigan’s laws fall dramatically short of addressing.

“With today’s charges, we allege that Rob and Anne Minard didn’t just skirt around Michigan’s anemic regulation of political spending, but knowingly, willfully and overtly violated the law for their own personal enrichment,” Nessel said. “And under the shade allowed through Michigan’s current campaign finance laws, the Minards hid under the guise of the business of fundraising to repeatedly embezzle money from nonprofits.”