The Fed Corporation has returned about $4.8 million of the $5.4 million it received to work on a Clare health park project, according to Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office. (Jonathan Oosting | Bridge Michigan)

(This story was originally published by Bridge Michigan, a nonprofit and nonpartisan news organization. Visit the newsroom online: bridgemi.com.)

A Michigan contractor hired to work on a project at the center of an earmark embezzlement scandal has returned nearly $5 million to the state, Attorney General Dana Nessel announced Thursday.

As Bridge Michigan first reported, FED Corporation of Gladwin had contracted with the nonprofit Complete Health Park to develop what was meant to be a sprawling complex of medical and recreational facilities in Clare.

But the project was suspended in 2023 before the complex was constructed amid an investigation into David Coker, a former legislative aide who had created the nonprofit and secured a $25 million grant added to a state budget in 2022 by his former boss, then-House Speaker Jason Wentworth.

FED Corporation had received roughly $5.4 million to develop the health park, and Nessel’s office says the state has received a little more than $4.8 million as part of an agreement between the contractor and state health department.

“I am gratified that through our efforts we were able to recover this money for the State of Michigan,” Nessel said in a statement.

Nessel last year charged Coker with multiple counts of embezzlement and other crimes. The 51-year-old Clare resident has pleaded not guilty, and a preliminary examination is scheduled for March. He remains the only person charged in the affair.

The project had promised to include a pool, fitness areas, athletic courts and fields, a bowling alley and other buildings for medical offices, including doctors, dentists and chiropractors.

Coker created the Complete Health Park nonprofit around the time the earmark was being added to the state budget, and it was later awarded the money in a no-bid grant by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

The state had paid Coker’s nonprofit nearly $10 million of the $25 million grant before suspending the grant, citing “red flags” just days after Bridge Michigan approached the department with questions about the project.

Prosecutors alleged Coker funneled money from the Complete Health Park to a consulting firm he owned and then into personal bank accounts, spending the cash on lavish purchases like gold, platinum, vehicles and firearms.

Coker previously led the Clare County Republican Party and more recently headed the Clare Chamber of Commerce, but had not worked for Wentworth at the time he was awarded the grant.

Complete Health Park also spent $3.5 million to purchase land in Clare from a firm co-owned by current state Rep. Tom Kunse, R-Clare, who succeeded Wentworth in the House.

Wentworth and Kunse have both denied any wrongdoing. Nessel has not suggested any wrongdoing by the FED Corporation, either.

Lawmakers responded to various earmark-related scandals last year by reforming the previously opaque process, requiring legislators to publicly disclose their requests for the state grants well ahead of budget votes.

The charges against Coker 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 charge punishable by up to 20 years in prison, according to court records.

If convicted, Coker would forfeit dozens of assets authorities allege he purchased with the grant money, including multiple vehicles, firearm scopes and sights, gold coins, bars and other precious metals.