news Mississippi squandered $70 million in welfare funds given to Brett Favre, others

[VOSS]

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Brett Favre earned nearly $140 million as a star NFL quarterback over two decades and millions more in product endorsements. But that didn’t stop the state of Mississippi from paying Favre $1.1 million in 2017 and 2018 to make motivational speeches — out of federal welfare funds intended for needy families. The Mississippi state auditor said Favre never gave the speeches and demanded the money back, with interest.

 

Favre has repaid the fees, although not the $228,000 in interest the auditor also demanded. But the revelation by the auditor that $70 million in TANF welfare funds was doled out to a multimillionaire athlete, a professional wrestler, a horse farm and a volleyball complex are at the heart of a scandal that has rocked the nation’s poorest state, sparking parallel state and federal criminal investigations that have led to charges and guilty pleas involving some of the key players.

 

The saga, which has been boiling at low grade for 2½ years, drew new attention in July, when the state welfare agency fired a lawyer who had been hired to claw back some of the money, just after he issued a subpoena seeking more information about the roles of Favre and the former governor, Phil Bryant, a Republican. The current governor, Republican Tate Reeves, acknowledged playing a role in the decision to sack Brad Pigott, accusing the Bill Clinton-appointed former U.S. attorney of having a political agenda. But the state official who first uncovered the misspending and fraud, auditor Shad White, is a Republican.

 

In his first television interview since he was fired, Pigott said his only agenda was to get at the truth and to recoup U.S. taxpayer funds sent to Mississippi that he says were “squandered.”

 

Pigott, who before he was fired sued on behalf of Mississippi’s welfare agency, naming Favre and 37 other grant recipients, laid ultimate blame at the feet of top Mississippi politicians, including Bryant.

 

“Governor Bryant gave tens of millions of dollars of this TANF welfare money to a nonprofit led by a person who he knew well and who had more connections with his political party than with the good people in Mississippi who have the heart and the skills to actually cajole people out of poverty or prevent teenage pregnancies,” he said.

 

In an interview with the website Mississippi Today, Bryant said he never knew the grants came from welfare money. His lawyer didn’t respond to requests for comment.

 

The person in charge of the nonprofit group Pigott was referring to is Nancy New, a close friend of Bryant’s wife. New and her son have pleaded guilty to state and federal charges and agreed to cooperate. New, a key player in doling out the money, said in a court document that Bryant was among those involved in directing the transactions. Her lawyer declined to comment.

 

The former head of the state welfare agency, John Davis, has pleaded not guilty to state charges of bribery and conspiracy, and law enforcement officials say the investigations continue.

 

Text messages obtained by Mississippi Today and authenticated by Pigott show that Favre sought a $3.2 million grant for a drug company in which he was a shareholder and a $5 million award that built a volleyball arena at the University of Southern Mississippi, where his daughter played the sport and where he played football. Favre’s lawyer declined to comment.

 

The drug company, Prevacus, was touting treatments to mitigate the effects of concussions, although none were approved by the Food and Drug Administration. In some texts, Favre suggested awarding shares in the drug company to Bryant while he was governor.

 

“Don’t know if legal or not but we need cut him in,” Favre texted a company official in November 2018, referring to Bryant. Following up three days later, Favre wrote, “Also if legal I’ll give some of my shares to the Governor.”

 

The state auditor said he found other “no show” contracts benefiting former pro athletes and family members of Davis, the welfare agency director.

 

The auditor said Davis directed one contract to Austin Smith, his nephew, who was paid more than $400,000 to provide “coding skills” classes even though prosecutors allege he had no such skills “and did not know how to teach.”

 

At least $3 million went to Ted DiBiase, a retired professional wrestler. Marcus Dupree, a former college football star, also received $370,000 in welfare funds, which prosecutors say partly went to fund his horse ranch.

 

Paul LaCoste, who is the current governor’s athletic trainer, was paid $300,000 in welfare funds to run a fitness boot camp for legislators.

 

DiBiase, Dupree, and LaCoste didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. Smith denies all wrongdoing, according to a court filing provided by his attorney.

 

The scandal has also spotlighted the meager scope of Mississippi’s welfare program and provided a stark reminder of the Clinton-era welfare reform that provided states with block grants and wide latitude in how they spend them. According to state figures, Mississippi rejects more than 90% of those who apply for the federal welfare benefit known as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF. This year 2,500 children received benefits, state officials said, in a state with 192,000 poor children.

 

Advocates and state legislators say Mississippi’s welfare agency, under years of conservative Republican state governments, has a history of questionable spending and a lack of transparency.

 

Jarvis Dortsch, a former state legislator who heads the state’s chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said that when he was a member of the Legislature, “I could not get a list of how the money was being spent.”

 

Dortsch said he had to resort to secrecy. 

 

“Someone had snuck me a list — it didn’t have [a] DHS [logo] on it — they had it printed out and snuck it out,” he said.

 

White, the auditor, told NBC News the investigation goes on. “My office is continuing the work we started over two years ago on what is now the largest public fraud case in our state’s history,” he said. “We will also continue to work with our state and federal partners to be sure each person responsible for this massive scheme is held fully accountable under the law.”

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[XAMJ]

Welp too bad the blue city full of minorities is suffering the ignorance of the MAGA rural areas 

[Katamari]

thats weird

 

like wtf is wrong with ppl

 

they all should be fired

[Genie in a Bottle]

Infuriating? Absolutely. 
 

Surprising? Not in the slightest.