Prosecutor: Health Park Founder 'Enriched Himself' With $25 Million State Grant as Embezzlement Trial Date Set

Former House Aide David Coker Charged With Using Grant Money for Personal Vehicle Loans and Precious Metals

LANSING — A former legislative aide who helped secure a $25 million state grant for a health park in Clare allegedly diverted nearly $1 million of the money to pay off personal vehicle loans and purchase precious metals, 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.

Megyesi presented detailed court testimony showing Coker spent some of the money on the vehicles as well as precious metals and coins. She also noted that in April 2023, he spent nearly $200,000 on land along M-10 in Farwell.

"His non-disclosure was an attempt to defraud and cheat," Megyesi told 54-A District Judge Kristen Simmons at the close of a two-day preliminary exam to establish probable cause for embezzlement charges against Coker.

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.

$25 Million Earmark Grant Created Controversy From Start

The state originally 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
• Two counts of embezzlement of $100,000 or more, a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison

"An unusual theory of fraud"

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.

Blanchard told the judge that Coker was being accused of not answering a question that was never asked. When the grant administrator 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," Blanchard said.

Blanchard added that state corporation records show Coker was the principal behind the company since 2020. "There are no secrets about it. He was never asked about it by HHS," Blanchard said.

Prosecutors Point to Multiple Conflicts and Misconduct

However, 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 benefited him.

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

State Says Coker Exceeded Salary Cap

Alex Ungren, a forensic accountant for the state attorney general's office, testified that Coker's purchases were made after roughly $300,000 was withdrawn from a bank account for IW Consulting, Coker's limited liability company, and deposited into a personal bank account belonging to Coker and his wife.

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," the attorney general's office noted.

But Blanchard argued Coker wasn't an employee of Complete Health Park; instead, he was a contractor to the organization not subject to the salary cap.

"I don't see how it can be embezzlement when the principal knew of the transfer and signed a contract saying we will make that payment," Blanchard said.

Local Accountant Admits Being 'Far Too Trusting'

Also on Wednesday, a local Clare accountant who signed off on Complete Health Park's initial financial status report to the state in December 2022 told the judge that she "was far too trusting and didn't ask a lot of questions."

Shannon Taylor said she had been approached by Coker, who was an acquaintance in Clare, to help with accounting for the health park project. Taylor said she ultimately declined in January 2023 because she felt she didn't have the experience needed, working more with payroll and bookkeeping than with financial statements and larger business operations.

Still, she said, she signed off on a financial status report in December 2022 as a "placeholder" until the company found an official, permanent accountant. She said she hadn't actually reviewed the report but understood it to be a projection of how the project dollars may be spent.

"I just trusted that this was how these things worked in order to move forward; for the project to even be real or possible, then figures had to be turned in saying what they were," Taylor said.

"I didn't ask a lot of questions because I didn't know the questions to ask because this is way out of my league," Taylor said.

What Happens Next

Simmons is scheduled to announce her decision on May 7 on whether Coker should go on trial for his alleged crimes in circuit court.

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.

Sources:

• Prosecutor: Health park founder 'enriched himself' with state grant — Bridge Michigan (https://bridgemi.com/michigan-government/prosecutor-health-park-founder-enriched-himself-with-state-grant/)
• ex-Michigan House aide accused of embezzling from $25M earmark grant — The Detroit News (https://eu.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2026/04/08/ex-michigan-house-aide-david-coker-faces-embezzlement-charges-25-million-grant-clare-health-park/89516488007/)
• Judge to decide on trial fate for ex-House aide accused of embezzlement — Yahoo (https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/judge-decide-trial-fate-ex-221734517.html)