NFL star Brett Favre allegedly received $1.1 million in Mississippi welfare money for speeches and promotional work he didn’t perform, according to an audit of welfare fraud in the state.
The Hall of Fame quarterback, 50, was paid $500,000 in December 2017 and $600,000 in June 2018 through his company, Favre Enterprises, under a contract that called for three speaking engagements, one radio spot and one keynote address, the 104-page audit released Monday said.
“Auditors were able to determine that the individual contracted did not speak nor was he present for those events,” the audit found.
“Due to the inability to verify that any work was performed in order to fulfill the contract, and due to the unreasonable amount paid, the entire payment of $1,100,000 paid in FY 2018 is questioned,” the audit said.
Favre, who spent the majority of his career with the Green Bay Packers, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily News.
Mississippi State Auditor Shad White said Monday that his office found that more than $94 million of federal grant money flowing through the Mississippi Department of Human Services was allegedly misspent, converted to personal use, spent on family members and friends or wasted.
The audit was released after a former Human Services director and five others were indicted on state charges of embezzling about $4 million in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families funds.
The defendants, charged earlier this year, have pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial.
“This completed audit of DHS for the previous year shows the most egregious misspending my staff have seen in their careers at the Office of the State Auditor,” White said in a statement Monday.
“When you read this one-hundred-plus page audit, you will see that, if there was a way to misspend money, it seems DHS leadership or their grantees thought of it and tried it,” he said.
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