Court Rules Brett Favre Is Still on the Hook For Misused Welfare Money
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Brett Favre is in some hot legal water. Last year, the Mississippi Department of Human Services brought a lawsuit against the NFL Hall of Famer alleging that he supported projects that misused money from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. He's tried to get himself out of the case, but the Mississippi Supreme Court just shot down those hopes.
A panel of three justices on the court issued its ruling on Aug. 9. Favre's team previously tried to get him removed from the lawsuit but the court turned down the request in April, leading him to appeal. According to NBC News, the ex-quarterback's attorneys said in written arguments in May that the Department of Human Services is making "utterly meritless" legal arguments in suing him. Favre is among the more than three dozen people or businesses listed as defendants on the case.
Prosecutors claim that millions of federal welfare dollars meant for low-income Mississippi residents were spent on projects supported by wealthy or well-connected people from 2016 to 2019, Favre being one of them. The improperly spent TANF funds include $5 million for a volleyball arena at his alma mater where his daughter played the sport and $1.7 million for the development of a concussion treatment drug.
Favre's attorneys argued that their client was implicated in a plot cooked up by the Department of Human Services and Nancy New, who led the Mississippi Community Education Center, a nonprofit organization with Human Services contracts.
In their filing, the lawyers claimed that the entities "concocted and carried out the scheme" to funnel welfare money to the volleyball center and that Favre was not involved, believing the state is involving the former NFL star to distract from their own impropriety. The government responded saying that Favre took $1.1 million from the nonprofit "for speeches he never made."
“Favre repaid that, but he has neither repaid the $1.7 million he arranged for his drug company, Prevacus, to receive in exchange for giving Nancy New stock, nor the $5 million he orchestrated the [University of Southern Mississippi] Athletic Department to receive for a volleyball facility,” attorneys representing Mississippi wrote in their brief to the state supreme court.
Favre hasn't been charged in the case, and the other more than 40 defendants are still waiting to learn their fate.
