Brett Favre to Repay $1.1M in Welfare Scandal

Former NFL quarterback got ensnared in embezzlement scandal
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted May 7, 2020 12:30 AM CDT
Updated May 7, 2020 6:40 AM CDT
Brett Favre to Repay $1.1M in Welfare Scandal
In this Oct. 17, 2018, file photo, former NFL quarterback Brett Favre speaks with reporters in Jackson, Miss., about his support for Willowood Developmental Center, a facility that provides training and assistance for special needs students.   (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)

Former NFL quarterback Brett Favre is repaying $1.1 million in welfare money that he received for multiple speeches where he did not show up, the Mississippi state auditor said Wednesday. Auditor Shad White said his office received $500,000 from Favre on Wednesday, plus a commitment that Favre will repay the other $600,000 in installments over the next few months, the AP reports. Favre's effort to repay the money came two days after White released an audit of spending by the Mississippi Department of Human Services that showed Favre had been paid by Mississippi Community Education Center, a nonprofit group whose former leader has been indicted in a welfare embezzlement scheme. The center had contracts with Human Services to spend money through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, also known as TANF.

In an audit, White said his employees identified $94 million in questionable spending by the agency, including payments for sports activities with no clear connection to helping needy people in one of the poorest states of the US. The audit released Monday said the center paid Favre Enterprises $500,000 in December 2017 and $600,000 in June 2018, and he was supposed to make speeches for at least three events. The auditor’s report said that “upon a cursory review of those dates, auditors were able to determine that the individual contracted did not speak nor was he present for those events.” In a Facebook post Wednesday night, Favre said he didn’t know the payments he received came from welfare funds and noted his charity had provided millions of dollars to poor kids in his home state of Mississippi and Wisconsin, where he played the bulk of his Hall of Fame career with the Green Bay Packers. (More Brett Favre stories.)

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