Brett Favre to return welfare money he was given for speeches he didn’t give
Former Southern Miss and NFL legend Brett Favre has decided to repay federal welfare funds he received from a nonprofit group that is under investigation for an embezzling scheme, according to State Auditor Shad White.
Favre received a total of $1.1 million from the Mississippi Communication Education Center, a group that had contracts with the Mississippi Department of Human Services.
State Auditor Shad White revealed the payments earlier this week through an audit that indicated the Hancock County, Mississippi, native received payments of $600,000 and $500,000 for speeches that he did not make.
On Wednesday, White announced that Favre had decided to pay the money back.
“Today my office has received $500,000 from Brett Favre in repayment for TANF money he was paid through MCEC and a commitment to repay the remainder in installments over the next few months,” White said in a statement. “The money will be held in our clearing account for a period and then be sent, in full, to the Mississippi Department of Human Services to be used for TANF-appropriate expenditures.
“I want to applaud Mr. Favre for his good faith effort to make this right and make the taxpayers and TANF families whole. To date, we have seen no records indicating Mr. Favre knew that TANF was the program that served as the source of the money he was paid.”
White said earlier this week that $94 million in questionable spending was found on part of the Department of Human Services.
Favre issued a statement on Twitter Wednesday evening.
“My agent is often approached by different products and brands for me to appear in one way or another. This request was no different, and I did numerous ads for Families First,” he said in the statement. “I have never received monies for obligations I didn’t meet. To reiterate Auditors White’s statement, I was unaware that the money being dispersed was paid for out of funds not intended for that purpose, and because of that I am refunding the full amount back to Mississippi.
“I have spent my entire career helping children through Favre 4 Hope donating nearly $10 million to underserved and underprivileged children in Mississippi and Wisconsin. It has brought a ton of joy to my life, and I would certainly never do anything to take away from the children I have fought to help! I love Mississippi and I would never knowingly do anything to take away from those that need it most.”
This story was originally published May 6, 2020 at 5:03 PM.
