Missing $1.1 Million Grant Money Plunges Dearborn's American Arab Chamber of Commerce Into Second Scandal in Four Years

DEARBORN, Mich. — The American Arab Chamber of Commerce, one of the country's most prominent Arab American business organizations, is reeling after firing its executive director and opening an investigation into roughly $1.1 million in state grant money that officials say was diverted from the organization's accounts. The chamber announced on August 21 that it had terminated Executive Director Bilal Hammoud, 30, after discovering that funds it expected to receive could not be accounted for. Board chairman Ahmad Chebbani said the organization immediately secured its remaining accounts, retained the law firm Warner Norcross + Judd to conduct an independent investigation, and referred the matter to Dearborn police, the Michigan Attorney General's Office and the FBI. According to reporting from The Detroit News, officials at the chamber are examining whether Hammoud rerouted about $1.1 million from a $3.4 million grant the organization received in 2023 through the Michigan Economic Development Corporation's (MEDC) Small Business Support Hubs program. The money was meant to flow to Tejara, the chamber's business incubator arm, which Hammoud also led as CEO. Sources told the paper the grant payment information in the state's online SIGMA financial system was allegedly altered so that funds intended for a chamber-controlled account were instead routed elsewhere. A federal tax filing cited by the Detroit News showed Tejara's revenue fell from $1.7 million in 2023 to just $11,192 in 2024. Hammoud has not been charged with any crime, and the allegations remain under investigation. In a statement, he said he "cared deeply" about Tejara, the chamber and the community he had served. The MEDC confirmed it had authorized the grant payments to a bank account designated by the grant recipient but has not commented further, and a spokesperson for the agency declined to elaborate to reporters. The episode marks the second major financial controversy to hit the 34-year-old chamber's leadership in recent years. Its former executive director, Fay Beydoun, is separately facing 16 felony charges connected to her handling of an unrelated $20 million state grant awarded in 2022; she has pleaded not guilty and that case remains pending. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel responded publicly to the new allegations by calling for the MEDC's funding to be halted, a position she has voiced before regarding the agency's grant oversight. Local coverage from WXYZ-TV in Detroit quoted Osama Siblani, publisher of The Arab American News, describing the news as having "rattled" the Metro Detroit Arab American community and questioning why the alleged diversion wasn't caught sooner. "If this happened for a long time, why was it not discovered? So there is a lack of accountability or even responsibilities in the chamber," Siblani said. Chebbani, who has previously chaired the board and pushed for tighter internal financial controls, wrote in a public opinion piece that the recurrence of financial trouble under different leaders demands answers beyond simply replacing an executive director. He said the chamber had already engaged an independent CPA, opened its books to review, and required multiple approvals for significant transactions, but cautioned that rules alone cannot substitute for a culture of accountability. The chamber, founded in 1992 and headquartered in Dearborn, says its member programs and services are continuing without interruption during the investigation and that it intends to release a full public accounting once the inquiry concludes. For a nonprofit that has long served as a bridge between Arab American entrepreneurs and government support programs, the twin scandals have raised broader concerns among community members about how public grant dollars flowing through ethnic community organizations are tracked and safeguarded going forward.