MS Raided Welfare Fund of $70M for Former Athletes, More
Mississippi, the country’s poorest state, spent $70 million from Temporary Assistance for Needy Families welfare funds on multimillionaire athlete Brett Favre, a professional wrestler, a horse farm and a volleyball complex, according to NBC News.
Mississippi has the highest child poverty rate, with 27.9 percent of its under-18 population meeting federal poverty guidelines. It has an 18.8 percent poverty rate, and its median household income of $44,966 is far below the country’s average at $67,521.
Yet the nation's poorest state used welfare money to pay Brett Favre for speeches he never made. The former football player returned the $1.1 million in 2017 and 2018 he was given to make motivational speeches.
Favre hasn’t been accused of a crime or charged, as parallel state and federal criminal investigations have led to charges and guilty pleas by others.
Now, the Mississippi state auditor Shad White is asking why federal welfare funds intended for needy families were spent on Favre, a volleyball complex, a horse farm, and a former pro wrestler.
Brad Pigott was hired to try to recover some of the welfare money and was fired after he issued a subpoena seeking more information about the roles of Favre and former Gov. Phil Bryant, NBC News reported.
Before he was fired, Pigott sued on behalf of Mississippi’s welfare agency and named Favre and 37 other grant recipients, blaming Mississippi politicians, including Bryant, who gave tens of millions of dollars of the TANF welfare money — from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services — to a non-profit.
“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.
The nonprofit was run by Nancy New, a close friend of Bryant’s wife, NBC News reported. New and her son pleaded guilty to state and federal charges and agreed to cooperate, saying in a court document that Bryant was among those involved in directing the transactions.
That’s only the beginning of what looks like people in charge treating taxpayer funds as their own party fund.
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