Prosecutor: Health park founder ‘enriched himself’ with state grant

Prosecutors allege a former legislative aide used part of a $25 million state grant to pay off personal vehicle loans and buy precious metals
David Coker has pleaded not guilty to embezzlement charges. His attorney contends nonprofit approved payments to consulting firm
Judge Kristin D. Simmons will decide next month whether there is enough evidence to send the case to trial

LANSING — In the week after Michigan wired nearly $10 million to a nonprofit tasked with building a health and wellness park in Clare, the man who pushed for the project used more than $71,000 of the grant money to pay off three vehicle loans and spent another $77,000 at a car dealership, according to court testimony in Lansing.

David Coker Jr., a Clare businessman who had served as an aide to then-House Speaker Jason Wentworth, transferred the money through a consulting firm he owned “and enriched himself” in the process, Assistant Attorney General Kelli Megyesi said Wednesday during a hearing to determine if Coker should be tried on multiple felony counts.

Coker spent some of the money on the vehicles as well as precious metals and coins, a state forensic accountant testified. And in April 2023, he spent nearly $200,000 on land along M-10 in Farwell, Megyesi said.

All told, Megyesi said Coker controlled more than $820,000 of the roughly $9.9 million the state sent to Complete Health Park on Jan. 9, 2023. She asked Lansing 54-A District Court Judge Kristen D. Simmons to rule that enough evidence exists for a trial, a decision Simmons said she’ll make May 7.

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Ultimately, the state planned to spend $25 million on the health park through an earmark added to a state budget by Wentworth in 2022. Two days after Bridge Michigan first asked about the grant in May 2023, the state said it had paused all spending amid “red flags.”

Coker was charged with various crimes last May after state police raided his home in Clare. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges, which include acquiring or maintaining a criminal enterprise, making false pretenses, abuse of public money and two counts of embezzlement of $100,000 or more, a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

‘An unusual theory of fraud’

In Wednesday’s hearing, defense attorney Josh Blanchard argued that Coker’s spending was immaterial because the health park’s nonprofit board had approved a contract with Coker’s consulting firm, IW Consulting, that paid him 7% of the project’s cost.

David Coker, left, and defense attorney Joshua Blanchard stand during the second day of a preliminary examination in Lansing (Mike Wilkinson for Bridge Michigan)

The state has an “unusual theory of fraud,” Blanchard told the judge, questioning claims that Coker was required to disclose to the state that he ran IW Consulting, which was paid by the nonprofit he created.

Darrell Harden, a state Department of Health and Human Services grant administrator assigned to shepherd the Complete Health Park grant, never asked if IW Consulting was tied to Coker, according to Blanchard.

Coker, Blanchard said, is being accused of not answering a question that was never asked. When Harden ultimately did ask for the contract between IW Consulting and the nonprofit, Coker gave it to him.

“There never was an attempt by Mr. Coker to hide (his role) with IW Consulting. The (health park) board knew about it.” Also, the state’s corporation records, which are public, show Coker was the principal behind the company since 2020, Blanchard said.

“There are no secrets about it. He was never asked about it by HHS,” Blanchard said.

Conflicts of interest

However, Harden also testified in an earlier hearing that Coker told him that he “was not making any money on the project.” And prosecutors noted the grant agreement with the state says it was the duty of Complete Health Park to “immediately notify” the state of any conflicts of interest.

Megyesi said the conflict was clear — that Coker, who drafted and signed invoices for IW Consulting on behalf of the Complete Health Park, wore too many hats.

He “ran all the meetings” of the nonprofit that received the grant and approved his consulting fees, Megyesi said, alleging he had purposely appointed board members with limited knowledge of financial matters and pushed an agenda that benefitted him.

A photo of the suspended Clare health park project. — Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office led a two-year investigation into a $25 million state budget earmark for a health park in Clare. (Jonathan Oosting/Bridge Michigan)

The testimony Tuesday included dizzying detail on how the money allegedly flowed from the Complete Health Park nonprofit to accounts controlled by Coker and his family across two different financial institutions.

Blanchard asked about the purchase of land off M-10. If the nonprofit’s payments to IW Consulting were legit, as he claims, “it could buy property wherever it wanted, correct?”

“Correct,” replied Alex Ungren, a forensic accountant for the state attorney general’s office.

Ungren had earlier testified that he flagged “questionable” fund transfers because they exceeded the $212,000 threshold that the state grant said Coker could make annually from the project, a number tied to top-level state employees.

The roughly $630,000 tracked by Ungren, he said, was far in excess of what may have been allowed.

‘An appearance of impropriety’

Megyesi said Coker also failed to inform state officials about a past criminal conviction of Anthony Demasi, who helped him draft a feasibility study for the project.

Coker sent $150,000 to a foundation controlled by Demasi on Jan. 9, 2023, the day the health park got its infusion of state money.

Demasi, who was listed as a program manager for the Clare project in early documents, spent several years in prison after he was convicted in 2010 for defrauding investors of millions of dollars in Chicago. Demasi was convicted in 2024 in a separate federal fraud case based in Michigan.

The prosecutor noted that the state grant agreement included a provision prohibiting Complete Health Park from “doing anything that creates an appearance of impropriety with respect to the award.”

Attorney General Dana Nessel has said she will not charge anyone else in the case, including Wentworth or current state Rep. Tom Kunse, whose family sold land to Coker’s nonprofit for $3.5 million. Both have denied any wrongdoing.