LANSING, MI — Former Michigan House Speaker Lee Chatfield is facing 13 felony charges for financial crimes after Attorney General Dana Nessel said Chatfield and his associates used hundreds of thousands of dollars he fundraised for extravagant personal purchases.
“Our investigation has uncovered evidence that Lee Chatfield used various different schemes to embezzle, steal and convert both private and public monies to fund a lavish lifestyle that a state salary could not possibly afford,” Nessel said during a press conference Tuesday.
It included a $32,000 Bahamian vacation, luxury purchases, a family trip to Universal Studios in Florida, groceries and paying off a $132,000 credit card balance.
Chatfield, who served as leader of Michigan’s state house in 2019 and 2020, raised more than $5 million while in office both through disclosed campaign accounts and through a nonprofit “dark money” organization called Peninsula Fund.
The announcement came after a years-long investigation into Chatfield’s activities before and after he served as speaker for two years from 2019 through 2020.
The 13 charges he is facing include conducting a criminal enterprise and embezzlement, and all are felonies which could result in decades in prison if convicted.
Chatfield’s lawyer, attorney Mary Chartier, told MLive her client will fight the charges.
“It took almost two and a half years for the Attorney General’s Office to come up with charges against Mr. Chatfield regarding supposed financial offenses,” Chartier told MLive. “We are prepared to fight them each and every step of the way.”
Chatfield’s wife, Stephanie Chatfield, also faces felony charges for participating in the scheme.
“The evidence shows that Stephanie Chatfield made payments to Lee Chatfield’s personal credit cards directly from Peninsula Fund accounts,” Nessel said.
Anné and Rob Minard, his former political director and chief of staff, respective, are currently facing more than a dozen charges including embezzlement for allegedly taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from the same accounts.
More: Former top Michigan legislative staffers arraigned on embezzlement charges
The inquiry into Chatfield first began a year after he left office due to term limits in 2021. His sister-in-law reported to Lansing police in January 2022 that he had sexually assaulted her repeatedly over more than a decade. Chatfield characterized their relationship as an affair and denied the allegations.
Nessel said Tuesday the sexual assault investigation was being closed without charges because “we cannot reach the appropriate proofs required as it relates to the allegations of sexual assault.” Still, Nessel commended her for stepping forward.
“Were it not for her you likely wouldn’t be here today,” Nessel said, indicating it was those allegations that opened the door for state investigators to examine Chatfield’s alleged financial crimes.
That’s because Michigan’s disclosure laws allow politicians to have nonprofit accounts that can accept unlimited amounts of money from any source without disclosing their donors. Nessel excoriated Michigan disclosure laws for enabling Chatfield’s activity.
“The Michigan Campaign Finance Act is effectively toothless, useless, and utterly worthless as a deterrent to these crimes,” she said. “Its actions governing political funds and donor disclosure couldn’t be more futile if they were literally drafted by crooks for the very purpose of violating them.”
Checks from Chatfield’s four leadership political action committees, Nessel said, were given to Chatfield’s friends and family used to reimburse bar and retail expenses on Chatfield’s various trips.
Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson spoke to reporters after the press conference to call for the passage of the BRITE Act, proposed legislation which would provide some degree of increased disclosure around nonprofit accounts in Michigan.
More: Michigan lawmakers to propose revealing politicians’ ‘dark money’ accounts
“That the egregious, and blatant embezzlement of taxpayer dollars and nonprofit funds for personal enrichment were able to go undetected for so long underscores a failure of our current laws to prohibit corruption in state government,” Benson said. “This culture of corruption must end. Our citizens deserve better than this.”
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