Brett Favre could have one thing new to fret about within the fallout of the Mississippi welfare fund scandal that has adopted him for greater than two years.

The Corridor of Fame quarterback for the Inexperienced Bay Packers was questioned by the FBI over the $1.1 million in welfare funds he obtained for appearances he allegedly did not make, his lawyer Bud Holmes confirmed to NBC Information.

As he has previously, Holmes reportedly claimed Favre did nothing flawed and by no means understood the cash he obtained from a federal program designed to assist needy households. Favre has not been charged with a criminal offense, although he might nonetheless be going through a lawsuit from Mississippi over the compensation of funds.

Favre has since paid $1.1 million again to Mississippi, placing up $500,000 when information of the scandal broke and repaying the opposite $600,000 a yr and a half later, however the state is nonetheless ready on the $228,000 in curiosity it claims he owes.

Brad Pigott, the previous U.S. legal professional investigating Favre and different figures within the alleged welfare scheme, together with former Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant, was fired in July, a transfer he believes to be politically motivated. He wasn’t fired quickly sufficient to cease the submitting of subpoenas towards the group, although.

Mississippi’s welfare fund scandal is way greater than Brett Favre

The fundamentals of the Mississippi welfare scandal, as alleged, break all the way down to one thing like this.

Mississippi, the poorest state within the nation, obtained round $70 million from the federal authorities by a program known as Non permanent Help for Needy Households (TANF), which is meant to do precisely what its title says, present short-term monetary reduction for households with youngsters in dire monetary straits.

A Mississippi auditor alleged in March 2020 that the cash was directed to 2 state applications, the Mississippi Group Training Heart and Household Useful resource Heart of North Mississippi. Relatively than give that cash to needy households, the previous group allegedly doled it out to a litany of individuals and organizations you’ll be hard-pressed to name needy.

Story continues

A kind of individuals was Brett Favre, who obtained $1.1 million after making round $138 million in wage from his NFL profession. One other was former WWE wrestler Ted DiBiase Jr., who has since been ordered to repay $3.9 million he allegedly obtained for serving as a motivational speaker. There was additionally former faculty soccer star Marcus Dupree, who allegedly received $370,000 and Paul LaCoste, a coach allegedly paid $300,000 to run a health boot camp for legislators, per NBC Information.

After which there was $5 million spent to construct a volleyball facility at Southern Miss, Favre and Bryant’s alma mater.

That is solely the start of the tangle of curious funds, which had been all completed underneath the mockingly named (on reflection) Households First for Mississippi, a “family-stabilizing” initiative pushed by Bryant and his spouse when he was in workplace.

The authorized fallout could solely be starting, as Nancy New, a buddy of Bryant’s spouse who ran the Mississippi Group Training Heart, and her son lately pleaded responsible to state and federal prices of misusing public cash and have agreed to testify towards others.

Favre has forcefully argued his innocence in all this, however it’s very clear nobody ought to need to hear their title come up in what could be the greatest public corruption scandal in latest Mississippi historical past.