Chatfield staffers to stand trial on embezzlement charges, Michigan judge rules

• Rob, Anne Minard headed toward trial after judge rules on preliminary examination in embezzlement case
• Minards worked as senior staffers to then-House Speaker Lee Chatfield, who is also accused of various financial crimes
• Minards are accused of stealing more than $600M from political accounts

Former legislative staffers Anne and Rob Minard will stand trial on charges they stole more than $600,000 from political fundraising accounts while working for Michigan House Speaker Lee Chatfield, an Ingham County judge ruled Thursday.

Over a multi-day preliminary examination in August, state prosecutors alleged the couple used fraudulent reimbursements, double billings, misrepresented expenses and falsified records to fund a luxury lifestyle while working as some of the senior-most unelected officials in state government.

The Minards have pleaded not guilty but could face decades in prison if convicted. Their attorneys did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Prosecutors used a forensic accountant, Michelle Gallagher, who identified five different ways the Minards allegedly siphoned money off of the PACs and nonprofits they controlled.

In one instance, prosecutors alleged Anne Minard paid off credit card expenses that were “obviously personal in nature” totaling more than $14,000 using cash from the Peninsula Fund, a nonprofit account that isn’t required to detail its donors or expenses.

Related:

• The case against Lee Chatfield: Fake mileage, kickbacks and Harry Potter trips
• Lee Chatfield raised millions, traveled often. Michigan law kept much secret
• Ex-Chatfield aides plead not guilty to ‘criminal enterprise’ in Michigan

Purchases included $7,806 at Gucci, $1,040 on dress shirts and $1,000 at a plastic surgery center, according to court filings.

Anne Minard’s attorney, Gerald Gleeson, has chalked up some of the transactions to accounting errors. 

But in her Thursday decision, Ingham County District Court Judge Molly Hennessey Greenwalt wrote the financial records did not illustrate “innocent accounting mistakes and rather are indicative of defendants’ intent to defraud various entities for their own personal financial gain."

Hennessey Greenwalt ruled there is enough evidence to move forward with a trial but does not indicate guilt or innocence. A plea deal could still head off a trial. 

Attorney General Dana Nessel announced 20 felony charges against the Minards in late 2023 after a nearly two-year investigation, including embezzlement, conducting a criminal enterprise and larceny by false pretenses. 

Chatfield, a Levering Republican, and his wife are also facing a slew of corruption-related charges over alleged misuse of political, nonprofit and taxpayer funds while he led the Michigan House in 2019 and 2020. He and his wife have both also pleaded not guilty.

Investigators allege the Minards were working closely with Chatfield.

“If any of this sounds familiar, it probably should, because they are the very same allegations that ultimately form the basis of some of Lee Chatfield’s crimes,” Assistant Attorney General Kahla Crino said last month while explaining one alleged scheme in court. “What is being described here is converting PAC money to pocket money for Lee Chatfield.”

In court filings, Chatfield’s brother and sister-in-law described receiving checks from Anne Minard to give to Lee Chatfield coinciding with trips to Detroit, Miami, Las Vegas, Aspen and the Bahamas.

The Minards enjoyed a lucrative relationship while working under Chatfield. Rob was his chief of staff and Anne was director of external affairs.

They profited from their political consulting firm, Victor Strategies, while collecting legislative salaries and had oversight of more than half a dozen Chatfield-linked fundraising accounts.

More than $6 million moved through Chatfield’s various accounts during his tenure in the Legislature, and Victor Strategies was paid more than $1 million from political committees during that time period.

Nessel has argued Michigan’s weak disclosure laws enabled the alleged scheme. The investigation into financial improprieties stemmed from allegations by Chatfield’s sister-in-law Rebekah Chatfield in early 2022 that he had subjected her to longstanding sexual abuse.

Chatfield was not charged in relation to those assault allegations and has maintained their relationship was a consensual affair.

Investigators allege the Minards embezzled nearly $471,000 from Working Together For A Better Michigan, another PAC they controlled.

In one campaign finance disclosure, the PAC had reported paying $697,000 to WAM Print, a west Michigan printing firm, for political mail supporting nine GOP House candidates in 2020. 

But in reality, investigators said in court, WAM only charged the PAC about $545,000. The remaining money, they alleged, was stashed in a Victor Strategies account and later pocketed by the Minards. 

“The numbers are entirely fake, and they're not fake in a completely pulled out of the sky manner,” Crino, the assistant attorney general, said last month. “They are fake to perfectly mask the existence of that $151,000 check.”

Anne Minard’s attorney Gerald Gleeson cast the price difference as the cost of doing business and called the allegations of wrongdoing “merely speculation” given the lack of complaints from Victor Strategies’ clients.

“What the government wants to suggest is Victor Strategies essentially … did this work and isn't entitled to make a profit on it,” Gleeson said during the preliminary examination.

Prosecutors have also alleged the Minards excluded $672,429 in income — largely ill-gotten, in the eyes of investigators — off their 2020 tax return.

“While you're entitled to a legitimate paycheck or a legitimate profit for work that you did, you don't reflect that by filing false numbers with the state of Michigan that perfectly mask that that payment was ever made,” Crino said.

Nearly $339,000 was paid to Victor Strategies without any explanation in one lump sum, investigators also noted.

Now bound over for trial, the Minards are scheduled for arraignment in Ingham County Circuit Court on Sept. 25.