In 2020, Brett Favre’s name surfaced in an alleged multimillion-dollar welfare fraud scheme in his home state of Mississippi. According to the state audit, $1.1 million in funds went to Favre for appearances he did not make.
The audit states that the Mississippi Community Education Center paid Favre’s company, Favre Enterprises, $500,000 in December 2017 and $600,000 in June 2018 for appearances. According to the audit conducted by State Auditor Shad White’s office, “auditors were able to determine that the individual contracted did not speak nor was he present for those events.”
Favre promised to repay the money back, and on May 6th, 2020 — he gave back $500K. State Auditor Shad White released the following statement:
“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. 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.”
The former NFL QB has still not repaid $600,000 of Mississippi welfare funds he received from a non-profit for speaking engagements he did not attend, according to a report Thursday.
Favre tweeted on May 6, 2020: “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.”
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Mississippi Today reached out to James “Bus” Cook and were told “he had nothing to do with Favre’s contract with the public grant-funded nonprofit.”
“Though officials have not accused him of a crime, Favre said he would refund the money. He made an initial payment of $500,000. Favre has not made any additional payments, a spokesperson for the auditor’s office told Mississippi Today on Thursday morning. Because federal authorities are still investigating the payment to Favre, no one has demanded he repay the funds. No other recipients whose payments were questioned in the audit have voluntarily refunded the money, either, the spokesperson said.”
Favre did not return calls and messages Thursday, Mississippi Today reported.
In fact, reporter Anna Wolfe messaged him about it, showed up to his gate to speak about it, only to find out he had blocked her on Twitter.
