First the $4,500 Coffee Machine. Now the Chamber Can’t Find the Coffee—or the Money.

The American Arab Chamber of Commerce has spent more than three decades building economic bridges.

Unfortunately, nobody appears to know whether those bridges lead to international commerce, the executive director’s office or a bank account nobody remembered to reconcile.

Dearborn has already lived through one financial season of Keeping Up with the Chamber Executives.

The first season featured former Executive Director Fay Beydoun, a $20 million state appropriation, a newly created nonprofit called Global Link International and a $4,500 coffee machine presumably capable of brewing espresso, cappuccino and legislative oversight.

Now comes Season Two.

The chamber has terminated its latest executive director, Bilal Hammoud, after announcing that certain organizational funds could not be accounted for.

TCD News, citing unnamed sources with knowledge of the matter, reports that the unresolved amount may be nearly $1 million.

The chamber has not confirmed that figure.

Hammoud has not been charged with a crime.

An external investigation is underway.

But Dearborn has heard enough to ask one completely reasonable question:

Who is doing the accounting over there—the same cousin who keeps score at the family card game?

From Coffee Machine to Money Machine

Let us begin with the chamber’s previous financial cinematic universe.

While serving as the chamber’s executive director, Fay Beydoun helped pursue state funding for an international business accelerator.

Chamber Chairman Ahmad Chebbani later told investigators that the board believed Beydoun was seeking funding for the chamber.

Michigan lawmakers approved a specially tailored $20 million appropriation.

But instead of arriving at the chamber, the opportunity landed with Global Link International, a separate nonprofit controlled by Beydoun and incorporated shortly after the appropriation passed.

Global Link received the first $10 million.

Beydoun left the chamber.

And somewhere in Michigan, a $4,500 coffee machine began the most politically connected brewing cycle in state history.

The purchases associated with Global Link reportedly included an $11,000 trip to Budapest, expensive furniture and a salary of $550,000 a year.

The Michigan Attorney General has now charged Beydoun with sixteen felonies, alleging that she converted restricted state funding to her own use and submitted false documentation to the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.

Beydoun is presumed innocent unless convicted.

The coffee machine, however, remains guilty of costing more than some Dearborn residents’ first cars.

Maybe it was not an ordinary coffee machine.

Maybe it prepared Turkish coffee using beans individually interviewed by the State Department.

Maybe every cup came with a business plan.

Maybe international investors were supposed to smell the espresso from Europe and immediately relocate their companies to Farmington Hills.

Whatever it did, it certainly woke up the Attorney General.

New Director, New Investigation

After the coffee-machine era, one might expect the chamber to become the Fort Knox of nonprofit accounting.

Every receipt photographed.

Every purchase approved twice.

Every bank statement examined by an auditor, an attorney and one suspicious auntie wearing reading glasses at the end of her nose.

Instead, the chamber has announced that funds cannot be accounted for under another executive director.

According to its official statement, the chamber terminated Hammoud, secured its accounts, retained Warner Norcross + Judd to conduct an independent external investigation and began cooperating with the appropriate authorities.

That is the responsible action now.

The more important question is why the organization had to reach the “secure the accounts” phase in the first place.

The chamber teaches entrepreneurs about business development, responsible growth and professional leadership.

Apparently, those educational programs were available to members only.

Inside the executive office, the financial curriculum may have consisted of:

Lesson One: Build economic bridges.

Lesson Two: Do not ask where the bridge ends.

Lesson Three: If the numbers stop making sense, schedule another gala.

Nearly One Million Questions

The chamber has not disclosed how much money is unresolved.

TCD News reports that the figure may be nearly $1 million, attributing that information to unnamed sources.

That means we should not publish the number as an established fact. We should also not accuse Hammoud of personally taking it.

“Funds cannot be accounted for” can describe several possibilities—from missing documentation and unauthorized spending to financial mismanagement or something more serious.

That is exactly why an investigation exists.

But “we do not yet know what happened” is not the same as “nothing happened.”

The public should resist convicting Hammoud through Instagram comments.

The chamber should resist answering serious questions through carefully formatted beige statements that contain the phrase “additional information will be released as appropriate.”

Dearborn knows what “as appropriate” means.

It means sometime after three attorneys, four board meetings and a banquet where nobody is allowed to mention QuickBooks.

The Chamber’s New Job Posting

The American Arab Chamber of Commerce will eventually need new leadership.

Fortunately, we have prepared the advertisement.

Executive Director — American Arab Chamber of Commerce

Responsibilities:

• Promote Arab American businesses locally and internationally.

• Build productive relationships with government and corporate partners.

• Represent the chamber at conferences, ribbon cuttings and dinners where seven people speak before the food arrives.

• Maintain accurate organizational records.

• Know approximately how much money the organization possesses.

• Continue knowing where that money is after lunch.

• Understand that “nonprofit” does not mean “nobody will notice.”

• Submit receipts before they become exhibits.

• Refrain from purchasing any coffee machine that requires legislative approval.

• Permit one unrelated accountant to enter the building at least once per fiscal year.

Preferred qualifications:

• Leadership experience

• Financial literacy

• Familiarity with independent audits

• Ability to open a bank statement without retaining outside counsel

• No emotional attachment to Tunisian rugs

Benefits:

• Competitive salary

• National networking opportunities

• Unlimited ribbon cuttings

• Coffee provided—after board approval

Where Was the Board?

It is easy to turn every institutional scandal into a story about one allegedly bad executive.

That is convenient for boards because it allows them to issue a statement, replace a name on the website and act as if the building repaired itself.

But executive directors do not supervise themselves.

Who reviewed the accounts?

Who approved expenditures?

Who received the financial reports?

Who reconciled the bank statements?

Who was responsible for internal controls?

How frequently did the board examine the numbers?

And why does the chamber’s financial oversight appear to activate only after the story becomes public?

A board is not decorative Arabic calligraphy for the organizational letterhead.

Its job is governance.

If one executive leaves behind controversy, perhaps the organization hired poorly.

If consecutive executive eras produce nationally embarrassing financial questions, perhaps the organization governs poorly.

You cannot build economic bridges while treating internal controls like optional cup holders.

Not Every Question Is an Accusation

Hammoud deserves a fair investigation.

He has not been criminally charged, and the chamber’s statement does not accuse him of personally stealing money.

If the investigation determines that he committed no wrongdoing, that conclusion deserves the same attention as the original headline.

Beydoun, likewise, is facing allegations that prosecutors must prove in court. Sixteen charges are not sixteen convictions.

But fairness does not require silence.

It requires precision.

We can say the chamber terminated Hammoud after discovering funds it could not account for.

We can say TCD News reports that the unresolved amount may approach $1 million.

We can say Beydoun, another former chamber executive director, is facing sixteen felony charges concerning her alleged administration of a separate taxpayer-funded nonprofit.

And we can ask why the same institution keeps appearing in financial stories where the numbers are enormous and the oversight is microscopic.

Bring the Receipts

This is bigger than Dearborn gossip.

The chamber represents businesses that pay dues, entrepreneurs who trust its guidance, public agencies that partner with it and a community whose name appears in the organization’s title.

When the chamber succeeds, it presents itself as a national representative of Arab American business excellence.

When the money becomes difficult to explain, suddenly everybody should wait quietly while unnamed professionals conduct an investigation behind closed doors.

No.

The community deserves an independent accounting, a clear timeline, the amount involved, an explanation of the controls that failed and a plan preventing the next executive director from starring in Season Three.

Because the most embarrassing part is not that an organization encountered a financial problem.

Organizations encounter problems.

The embarrassing part is needing two major financial controversies before discovering that “trust us, habibi” is not an internal-control system.

The American Arab Chamber of Commerce does not need another charismatic executive with beautiful speeches about building bridges.

It needs transparent books.

It needs independent audits.

It needs board members willing to govern before the lawyers arrive.

It needs financial controls strong enough to survive the executive director’s office.

And above all, it needs somebody to remember the lesson Dearborn parents have taught their children for generations:

We do not care what you bought. Bring us the receipt.

Dearborn has had enough expensive coffee.

This time, bring the receipts.

You think it. I say it.

—Habib