Favre Returning Welfare Money He Pocketed for Speeches He Never Delivered
GREEN BAY, Wis. – Former Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre is in the process of repaying the $1.1 million of welfare funds he received to give speeches he never delivered.
“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,” Mississippi state auditor Shad White said in a statement published in the Sun Herald. “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.”
Favre’s company, Favre Enterprises, was paid $500,000 in December 2017 and $600,000 in June 2018 to, according to the audit, “appear at several events, record promotions and provide autographs for marketing materials. Additional contract information provided that the contract fee would be paid in installments and would include three (3) speaking engagements, one (1) radio spot and one (1) keynote address.”
Favre, pointing to his charity work with kids in Wisconsin and Mississippi, responded to the controversy in a Twitter thread.
Results from the annual audit, which were released on Monday, show how $94 million in federal welfare grant funds – money meant to help the poor – went from the state’s Department of Human Services to two nonprofits that spent that money suspiciously. In this case, $1.1 million went from Mississippi Community Education Center to Favre Enterprises.
While leaders of those nonprofits could face criminal action for the alleged embezzlement, Favre was not expected to face any legal troubles “because it's unlikely recipients such as Favre were aware the money came from the state's welfare program,” a spokesman for the Mississippi Office of the State Auditor told Packer Central. Regardless of what he knew before the audit made national news, it was a bad look for the legendary quarterback.
Messages to Favre’s agent, Bus Cook, were not answered.
