- Amy Robach ‘wanted to die’ post-scandal, did ‘welfare check’ on T.J Holmes during ‘year of hell’ Page Six
- Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes Break Their Silence: ‘We Lost the Jobs We Love Because We Love Each Other’ Yahoo Entertainment
- GMA3’s ousted Amy Robach flaunts toned legs in teeny shorts and high heels as on date with TJ Holmes ahead… The US Sun
- Marilee Fiebig unfollows ex-husband T.J. Holmes and Amy Robach after former ‘GMA3’ co-hosts make red carpet debut Page Six
- TJ Holmes hints at wedding plans with Amy Robach in new podcast HELLO!
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Tag Archives: welfare
Brett Favre suing Shannon Sharpe, Pat McAfee claiming defamation over Mississippi welfare scandal, per report – CBS Sports
- Brett Favre suing Shannon Sharpe, Pat McAfee claiming defamation over Mississippi welfare scandal, per report CBS Sports
- Brett Favre sues Auditor Shad White, national media figures for defamation regarding welfare scandal WJTV 12 News
- Pat McAfee not shying away from legal battle with Brett Favre: ‘Let’s ride this f—er’ Fox News
- Brett Favre sues Shannon Sharpe, Pat McAfee for alleged defamation over Mississippi welfare case Yahoo Sports
- POLLOCK’S NEWS UPDATE: Changes to UFC contracts, Pat McAfee sued by Brett Favre POST Wrestling
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Scott Minerd, Guggenheim Partners’ Investment Chief, Dies at Age 63
Scott Minerd,
an outspoken and influential fund manager who was chief investment officer of Guggenheim Partners, died Wednesday of a heart attack.
Mr. Minerd, 63 years old and a committed weightlifter known to bench press more than 400 pounds, died during his daily workout, the firm said.
Mr. Minerd joined Guggenheim shortly after the firm was founded in 1998.
Guggenheim Chief Executive
Mark Walter
credited him with designing the organization, systems and procedures that helped Guggenheim rise from a startup to a manager of more than $218 billion in total assets and 900 employees.
Mr. Minerd served as the public face of Guggenheim. In that role, he was among Wall Street’s more prominent personalities, making frequent appearances on television and maintaining an active presence on social media to discuss markets and investments, often in blunt terms.
“That sound you hear is the Fed breaking something,” he wrote in October in a message to clients, warning that the central bank’s campaign to raise interest rates was causing dislocations in fixed-income and foreign-exchange markets.
Mr. Minerd was a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Investor Advisory Committee on Financial Markets and an adviser to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Mr. Minerd is survived by his husband Eloy Mendez.
“As an asset manager, I’ve come to view conventional wisdom as the surest path to investment underperformance,” Mr. Minerd wrote in a biographical summary.
Mr. Minerd grew up in western Pennsylvania and studied economics at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. He also took courses at the University of Chicago and described himself as a monetarist.
He worked as a dealer in currencies, bonds and structured securities at Merrill Lynch,
Morgan Stanley
and CS First Boston in the 1980s and 1990s.
At age 37, feeling burned out, he left Wall Street and moved to Los Angeles. “I walked away from extremely large offers on Wall Street,” he told Bloomberg in 2017. “I realized this wasn’t a dress rehearsal for life, this was it.” After joining what became Guggenheim Partners, he worked in a Santa Monica, Calif., office overlooking the ocean.
Mr. Minerd was a conservative willing to embrace some ideas from the left and seek middle ground.
In a 2020 interview with the Los Angeles Times, he took aim at elite universities, including the University of Pennsylvania. “These schools have huge endowments, and why are they not focusing their endowment on advancing a cause of essentially free education or at least education that provides complete support for people below certain income levels?” he asked. Mr. Minerd said he wouldn’t make donations going to “bricks and mortar and making the place look better when people who would be qualified to come there can’t afford to do it. And, of course, if we had more equal access to education, it would help address some of the issues around race and poverty.”
Referring to his bulky bodybuilder’s physique, he once told a Wall Street Journal reporter that when people asked about “key man” risk at Guggenheim and wondered what would happen if Mr. Minerd was hit by a truck, his staff members would respond, “Do you mean what would happen to the truck?”
One of his favorite charities was Union Rescue Mission, which provides food, shelter, training and other services to homeless people in Los Angeles County.
Andy Bales,
chief executive of Union Rescue Mission, recalled meeting Mr. Minerd around 2008, when the mission was in poor financial shape and in danger of having to sell one of its sites. “He told me that God was tapping him on the shoulder, telling him to do more for others,” the Rev. Bales said. Mr. Minerd ended up donating more than $5 million to the mission to allow it to expand services.
Mr. Minerd was often seen with a rescue dog he called Grace, who accompanied him to the office and on trips.
His work schedule was punishing. “He was up early for East Coast customers and went late for his West Coast customers,” the Rev. Bales said.
Write to Charley Grant at charles.grant@wsj.com and James R. Hagerty at bob.hagerty@wsj.com
Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
UK’s Truss refuses to rule out welfare cuts to fund economic plan
BIRMINGHAM, England Oct 4 (Reuters) – Britain’s new Prime Minister Liz Truss triggered a fresh row in her party on Tuesday by suggesting that she could limit increases in benefit payments by less than soaring inflation as she seeks ways to fund her tax-cutting growth plan.
Britain’s new leader has endured a tumultuous time since she came to power on Sept. 6, first leading national mourning for Queen Elizabeth before releasing an economic package that immediately roiled financial markets.
Seeking to snap Britain out of more than 10 years of economic stagnation, Truss and her finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng set out 45 billion pounds of unfunded tax cuts on Sept. 23 alongside promises to deregulate the economy to stoke growth.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
On Monday they bowed to pressure to scrap the most divisive policy – eliminating the top rate of income tax for the highest earners – and are now working urgently on the full details of the plan and how they will be able to afford it without leaving a huge black hole in the country’s public finances.
“We have to look at these issues in the round. We have to be fiscally responsible,” Truss told BBC Radio when asked whether benefit payments would rise in line with record-high inflation to prevent the poorest in society from becoming poorer.
Immediately lawmakers in Truss’s Conservative Party – some fresh from forcing top tax rate reversal – opposed any move to reduce the increases in benefits at a time when millions are struggling with higher costs of food and energy.
Penny Mordaunt, who is in Truss’s cabinet of senior ministers, said benefits should rise in line with inflation. Damian Green, part of the Conservatives’ centrist faction, said he doubted any real-terms reduction would pass a parliamentary vote.
“I think there will be many of my colleagues who think that when you’re reaching for spending cuts, benefit payments are not the way to do it,” Green told BBC Radio. Another lawmaker, Roger Gale, also signalled his opposition.
Kwarteng has set Nov. 23 as the date for his next fiscal statement but the government is considering bringing that forward. read more
POLITICAL TURBULENCE
Truss became Britain’s fourth leader in six years last month, promising to reignite the economy and bring some political stability after the chaotic leadership of Boris Johnson.
Chosen by her party’s members, not the broader electorate, she was not the most popular candidate among the more than 350 Conservative members of parliament and her decision to stake out a tax cut plan and then concede defeat has left lawmakers and investors questioning her judgement and authority.
At the annual Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, central England, some lawmakers and commentators have questioned whether she has a mandate to take Britain back to a 1980s-style Reagonomics policy without a national election.
The Conservatives won the 2019 election with Johnson promising to increase spending on public services.
“It is not a great thing to sell the public on one type of package and vision, and then completely flip it and appear not to care,” Rachel Wolf, the co-author of the Conservatives 2019 manifesto, said at the start of the conference.
Investors have also taken fright at the new economic policy direction, hammering the value of British assets so hard that the Bank of England had to intervene last week with a package worth up to 65 billion pounds to shore up the bond market.
Mohamed El-Erian, an adviser to financial services giant Allianz, said the government needed to get its house in order. “We are not a developing country and we need to stop acting like a developing country,” he told Sky News.
The BoE action has calmed markets, at least for now, while investors also took some comfort from the tax U-turn and the hoped-for move to bring forward the publishing date for the next fiscal plan from Nov. 23.
But Boris Glass, senior economist at S&P Global ratings agency, said Britain faced a difficult winter, and spending cuts could counter efforts to boost the economy.
“Unless strong medium-term growth can fully fund the extra spending, medium-term fiscal tightening appears inevitable, which may weigh on future growth,” he said.
($1 = 0.8782 pounds)
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Writing by Kate Holton, Reporting by Andrew MacAskill, Elizabeth Piper and Alistair Smout in Birmingham, Kylie MacLellan and Sarah Young in London. Editing by William Maclean and Jon Boyle
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
SiriusXM and ESPN Milwaukee suspend Brett Favre programming as welfare scandal intensifies
Two of Brett Favre’s weekly shows have reportedly been suspended due to the former quarterback’s alleged entanglement in a welfare fraud case unfolding in Mississippi.
ESPN Milwaukee paused “The Brett Favre Show” podcast last week, a spokesperson confirmed with CBS MoneyWatch. ESPN Milwaukee is owned by Wisconsin-based Good Karma Brands and not the Disney-owned sports programming network. SiriusXM also suspended its weekly radio show hosted by Favre, The Athletic tweeted Sunday.
SiriusXM didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment Monday.
Favre’s lawyer Paul “Bud” Holmes also didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The suspensions come months after Favre was mentioned in an audit of Mississippi’s state budget. An auditor found state officials redirected more than $70 million in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families welfare funds last year to Favre and other individuals instead of giving the money to low-income families. State officials, more specifically, used a nonprofit organization to funnel $1.1 million to Favre as a stipend to perform speeches that he never gave, Mississippi auditor Shad White found.
In an October 2021 Facebook post, Favre said he has started repaying the money to the state. Favre also said in the post that he didn’t know the money came from welfare funds.
The Mississippi Department of Human Services has filed a lawsuit against Favre, three former pro wrestlers and several other people and businesses to try to recover millions in welfare dollars. The lawsuit alleges that Favre, former WWE star Ted “the Million Dollar Man” DiBiase and others “squandered” more than $20 million intended for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families anti-poverty program.
Court documents related to the case show a string of text messages that suggest former Gov. Phil Bryant was “on board” with Favre getting the speech money. The text message chain was between Favre and Nancy New, the executive director of the Mississippi Community Education Center.
New and Favre discussed a payment arrangement coming from the Mississippi Department of Human Services through her nonprofit, with Favre then saying he would direct the money to the volleyball facility at the University of Southern Mississippi.
Favre, who played 20 seasons in the NFL, and Bryant, who left office in 2020, are both USM alums. Favre’s daughter, Breleigh, began playing volleyball at the school in 2017. His daughter was the fourth winningest beach volleyball player in USM’s history, according to Sports Illustrated. She transferred to LSU in August 2022.
Neither Favre nor Bryant have been charged in the welfare misspending case.
John Davis, who ran Mississippi’s human services department and was appointed by Bryant, pleaded guilty last week on federal conspiracy charges of misspending tens of millions of dollars. Davis, who was the human services executive director from February 2016 through July 2019, will be sentenced next year.
Brett Favre and the Mississippi welfare scandal that keeps growing
Mississippi’s widening welfare scandal involves tens of millions of dollars and has embroiled the state’s former governor, Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre and professional wrestlers, among others. Organizations such as Operation Shoestring, and the at-risk populations that rely on those funds, continue to feel the sting.
As Langford tried to renew the funding in 2018, the state officials tasked with distributing the money were found to be funneling millions away from those it was intended for. The scandal’s impact will be felt for years, advocates say.
“It makes my blood boil,” Langford said. “We’re talking about funds that were supposed to be used to help move people out of poverty in the poorest state instead becoming literal currency for favors, both political and financial for people. It’s amazing.”
The details of the scandal continue to emerge in court filings and reporting by nonprofit news organization Mississippi Today. Last week, John Davis, the former executive director of the Mississippi Department of Human Services, pleaded guilty to two federal charges and 18 state counts of embezzling federal welfare funds. The U.S. Justice Department said Davis misused the money and helped create “sham contracts … knowing that no significant services would be provided.”
His plea has spurred speculation that Favre and others could be further implicated. Favre received $1.1 million intended for welfare recipients in exchange for speeches and appearances the state auditor says he never made. And text messages included in court filings show Favre was heavily involved in discussions that resulted in $5 million in welfare money going toward the construction of a volleyball facility at his alma mater, the University of Southern Mississippi, where his daughter played volleyball.
Favre is among the subjects of a civil suit filed by the state of Mississippi but hasn’t been charged criminally. He has denied any wrongdoing and returned $1.1 million to the state. His attorney, Bud Holmes, declined to comment on whether Davis’s plea deal might impact the former quarterback. “There’s no point in speculating,” Holmes said.
While Favre, 52, has been linked to just a small fraction of the government money alleged to have been misused by state officials, he has emerged as a public face of the scandal. He earned some $140 million during his 20-year NFL career and millions more in endorsement deals.
But many in Mississippi stress that attention shouldn’t be focused solely on the former quarterback. According to the U.S. Census, one in five people in Mississippi lives in poverty — the worst rate in the nation — including 28 percent of children. The federal government gives money to states to distribute to needy populations through its Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, but even before the scandal came to light, Mississippians have struggled to access money.
“Less than 1 percent of families in Mississippi receive TANF that are eligible, and that is because for years families have found it to be an inhumane process that is just not worth it,” said Aisha Nyandoro, the chief executive of Springboard To Opportunities, a nonprofit that works with Mississippi families in need. “They make it so incredibly difficult for families that need these resources to get it. But then others who don’t need it can just send a text message and money magically appears in their bank account.”
A Mississippi state audit in 2020 found more than $94 million in federal welfare funds that had been subject to suspect spending. An independent audit a year later confirmed most of the findings and, hampered by a lack of cooperation, said it was unable to discern whether nearly $77 million in spending was permissible.
“To change the narrative, we have to change the narrator. It is less about Brett Favre and this volleyball stadium. That becomes sensationalism,” Nyandoro said. “You can hide behind something like that and not recognize there are real victims, there are people that didn’t receive the money they needed to get their car fixed, to get a job; moms who couldn’t get diapers. What good could have been done in Mississippi with this $94 million? How many families could’ve been impacted?”
Despite widespread poverty across the state, court filings describe a corrupt system in which state officials directed welfare money to programs, people and projects that had little interest in helping the state’s most vulnerable.
Recent court filings have suggested Favre continually pressed state officials for money to pay for the volleyball facility. “We obviously need your help big time and time is working against us,” Favre texted Gov. Phil Bryant (R) on Sept. 4, 2019. “And we feel that your name is the perfect choice for this facility and we are not taking No for an answer!”
“We are going to get there,” the then-governor responded. “This was a great meeting. But we have to follow the law. I am [too] old for Federal Prison.”
Favre previously told Mississippi Today that he had not discussed the volleyball facility project with Bryant.
The latest texts were included in a filing made Friday by Bryant, who revealed some communications as he argued against a subpoena seeking access to more of his records. The former governor also shared texts he had exchanged with Rodney Bennett, former president of University of Southern Mississippi. In January 2020, shortly after Bryant had left office, Bennett texted him that he had “asked Brett not to do the things he’s doing to seek funding from state agencies and the legislature for the volleyball facility.”
“As you know, [Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning] has a process of how we request and get approval for projects and what he’s doing is outside those guidelines. I will see, for the ‘umpteenth time’ if we can get him to stand down,” Bennett wrote. “The bottom line is he personally guaranteed the project, and on his word and handshake we proceeded. It’s time for him to pay up — it really is just that simple.”
“Maybe he wants the State to pay off his promises,” Bryant responded. “Like all of us I like Brett. He is a legend but he has to understand what a pledge means. I have tried many time[s] to explain that to him.”
According to the latest court filing, Favre had previously texted Bryant in July 2019: “I have to come up with a lot of money if this doesn’t get clearance.”
The money for the volleyball facility was channeled through a nonprofit called Mississippi Community Education Center. Nancy New and her son, Zach, ran the organization, have pleaded guilty and are cooperating with investigators.
Favre tweeted in May 2020 that he had “never received monies for obligations I didn’t meet” and “was unaware that the money being dispersed was paid for out of funds not intended for that purpose.” But court filings suggest he had at least some awareness of where the money was coming from. Favre texted Bryant in July 2019, court records show, expressing hope that Nancy New also could help fund an indoor football facility, giving the school’s program “instant credibility.”
Bryant responded via text message, according to the filing, telling Favre that “Nancy has some limited control over Federal Funds in the form of Grants for Children and adults in the Low Income Community” and “any improper use could result in violation of Federal Law.”
As the scandal continues to unspool, the people at the heart of it hope for more accountability and corrective measures, even if it requires federal intervention to fix a system that failed Mississippi’s poor long before Favre started pushing the volleyball facility.
“There’s a sense that this is not a surprise,” Operation Shoestring’s Langford said. “It’s terrible, but it’s not a surprise. The deck has been stacked against low-income folks in Mississippi for generations. The scale of this is really extraordinary. Fundamentally, this is part of a long tradition of in some sense continuing to victimize people who have not been dealt a fair hand in generations.”
Mississippi welfare scheme: Former state official pleads guilty in scheme where money was funneled to prominent Mississippians including Brett Favre
Officials from the US Department of Justice and the Hinds County District Attorney Office announced the one-time head of the Mississippi Department of Human Services, John Davis, had pleaded guilty to two federal counts and 18 state counts.
The DOJ said Davis and “his co-conspirators” used federal funds “for their personal use and benefit.”
“At Davis’s direction, MDHS provided federal funds to two nonprofit organizations and then directed the two nonprofit organizations to fraudulently award contracts to various entities and individuals for social services that were never provided,” federal prosecutors said in a news release.
On Thursday, the former state official pleaded guilty to two federal charges: one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and to commit theft concerning programs receiving federal funds and one count of theft concerning programs receiving federal funds, the DOJ announced. He could be sentenced to up to five years in prison on the conspiracy count and 10 years on the theft count.
Davis also pleaded guilty to five counts of conspiracy and 13 counts of fraud in Hinds County, District Attorney Jody E. Owens said in a tweet Thursday.
“Davis was one of six Defendants arrested and later indicted in 2020 in one of the largest embezzlement schemes in Mississippi history,” Owens said.
Auditor says $77 million in funds were intended for welfare program
The vast fraud scheme was uncovered in 2020 by a state audit of federal funds allocated to state agencies. When State Auditor Shad White announced the finding, he called the scheme “the most egregious misspending my staff have seen in their careers.”
The eight-month long investigation showed that the department gave more than $98 million to two non-profits: The Mississippi Community Education Center and the Family Resource Center of North Mississippi. Of the $98 million, $94 million was “questioned,” meaning it was either definitively misspent or auditors were unable to determine whether it was legally spent.
The state auditor has said around $77 million of money was intended for a state welfare program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.
Last week White told CNN, “I think what you had was a lot of money being pushed through a state agency that decided to then funnel that money to a nonprofit. There just were not a ton of checks on how that nonprofit was spending this money until the auditor’s office started digging into it.
“And then, you know, going another step forward into the future, I think that it’s important that we show the public that there are going to be consequences for this.”
Favre’s alma mater got new volleyball arena
According to investigators, more than $4 million was used to a build a Brett Favre-backed volleyball center at the University of Southern Mississippi, Favre’s alma mater, and where his daughter played the sport at the time.
The state of Mississippi filed a civil suit against more than 35 people and entities, including Pro Football Hall of Famer, earlier this year.
Text messages were released last week as part of that civil suit by attorneys for the non-profit founded by Nancy New, who has already pleaded guilty to charges related to the welfare funds scheme. They showed Favre discussing getting money through New’s nonprofit and expressing his love for Davis after being told of the funding, as well as meetings with Davis and former Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant about the funding.
Bryant and Favre have not been criminally charged with any wrongdoing at this time. Bryant is also not named as a defendant in the civil suit.
The former quarterback’s attorney told CNN that Favre, who retired after the 2010 season and a 20-year NFL career, did not know welfare funds were being used for the volleyball center and that his fundraising efforts for the volleyball center were honorable.
CNN’s Eric Levenson and Devon Sayers contributed to this report.
Brett Favre’s texts included in lawsuit over misspent Mississippi welfare funds
“Just left Brett Farve (sic). Can we help him with his project,” Bryant wrote to Nancy New, the founder of the nonprofit Mississippi Community Education Center, in a July 2019 message. “We should meet soon to see how I can make sure we keep your projects on course.”
In a separate conversation nearly two years prior, Favre wrote to New about his concerns about media publicity.
“If you were to pay me is there anyway the media can find out where it came from and how much?” Favre wrote in an August 2017 message.
“No, we never have had that information publicized,” New said.
The next day, New texted Favre with an update: “Wow, just got off the phone with Phil Bryant! He is on board with us! We will get this done!”
More than two years later, Bryant texted New to ask whether she had gotten any of the new programs through Mississippi’s Department of Human Services (DHS). New responded, in part, that “someone” was “definitely pulling for us behind the scenes,” and thanked Bryant. He responded with a smile emoji.
The text messages were included in a legal filing Monday as part of a civil lawsuit brought by the Mississippi DHS related to misspent welfare funds. Attorney Thomas Bufkin, who represents New’s non-profit Mississippi Community Education Center, one of the defendants, included the texts as part of a motion to compel Bryant to produce further documents.
The lawsuit stems from an investigation into how the state spent tens of millions of dollars in federal money that was intended to go to those most in need — the largest public fraud scheme in the state’s history, according to the state’s auditor.
The media outlet Mississippi Today, which has covered the scheme for several years, has reported that at least $5 million of the welfare funds were channeled to build a new volleyball facility at the University of Southern Mississippi. Favre played football for the school from 1987-90 and his daughter played volleyball there 2017-2022.
In April, New and her son were convicted for their roles in a scheme to use the welfare funds for the construction of the volleyball center. Neither Bryant nor Favre have been charged with wrongdoing.
Bryant’s attorney William M. Quin II issued a statement in response to the filing.
“Governor Bryant notified Nancy New’s attorney that he would produce the requested documents even though he isn’t a party to the lawsuit. All of the documents are privileged, so Governor Bryant requested that New’s attorney agree to a protective order that would allow the documents to be used in court with certain reasonable restrictions,” Quin said.
“Cases should be tried in courts of law where rules of evidence govern and privileges are respected. They should not be tried in the press, where innuendo and speculation sometimes get confused with actual facts. It appears that New’s attorney prefers to try his client’s case in the latter as opposed to the former.”
Favre’s attorney Bud Holmes denied any wrongdoing. “Since the very beginning, Brett has been honorable from day one to today,” he said.
University of Southern Mississippi did not respond to a request for comment.
How we got here
In May 2020, Mississippi’s state auditor announced that the state’s Department of Human Services wasted tens of millions of dollars in federal welfare grant funds through misspending, personal use and spending on family members, friends of staffers and grantees, including Favre.
The eight-month long investigation showed that the department gave more than $98 million to two non-profits: The Mississippi Community Education Center and the Family Resource Center of North Mississippi.
Of the $98 million, $94 million was “questioned,” meaning it was either definitively misspent or auditors were unable to determine if it was legally spent. Most of the money, given over three years, from 2016 to 2019, came from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, state auditor Shad White said.
Among the “questioned” spending is a series of payments made to Favre by the Mississippi Community Education Center.
The audit shows that Favre Enterprises was paid $500,000 in December 2017 and $600,000 in June 2018 in return for speeches at multiple events. The auditor’s report, however, states that “upon a cursory review of those dates, auditors were able to determine that the individual contracted did not speak nor was he present for those events.”
A follow-up audit conducted by an accounting firm in Maryland found that more than $77 million was improperly used from the state’s welfare program through the non-profits.
Favre, a Mississippi native, made millions of dollars during his stellar NFL career from 1991 to 2010, primarily as a quarterback for the Green Bay Packers. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2016.
In October 2021, Favre repaid the state $600,000 but authorities said he still owed $228,000 in interest.
“I have never received monies for obligations I didn’t meet,” Favre said in a tweet in May 2020. “… I was unaware that the money being dispersed was paid for out of funds not intended for that purpose, and because of that I am refunding the full amount back to Mississippi.”
Holmes, his attorney, said Wednesday that Favre did not know the origin of the funds.
“He had no idea where it came from. When it developed later that this money he was paid for speaking came out of money designed by the government … for the less fortunate or poor people, Brett paid it back,” Holmes said.
CNN’s Gregory Lemos and Kelly Mena contributed to this report.
Phil Bryant helped Brett Favre get welfare funds for volleyball stadium
The texts allegedly show Favre, New and Bryant conferring on how to divert at least $5 million for a volleyball stadium at Southern Miss, where Favre played college football and his daughter played volleyball at the time some texts were sent.
“If you were to pay me is there anyway the media can find out where it came from and how much?” a text showed Favre asked New in 2017. She replied that “we never have that information publicized” and told him the next day, “Wow, just got off the phone with Phil Bryant! He is on board with us! We will get this done!”
In a July 2019 text, Bryant told New that he had just met with Favre and asked if she could help him.
An attorney for Favre denied that his client knew he had received welfare funds. “Brett Favre has been honorable throughout this whole thing,” Bud Holmes told Mississippi Today. In 2020, Favre told the outlet that he had not discussed the stadium, which is not part of the state’s lawsuit, with Bryant.
Favre and Bryant, who left office in January 2020, have not been criminally charged, and Bryant did not address the texts in a statement to Mississippi Today. In it, he accused New’s defense team of being “more concerned with pretrial publicity than they are with civil justice.” The motion filed by New is the defendants’ first direct and public accusation of wrongdoing by Bryant.
Favre last year repaid the state $600,000 he had received for speeches he never gave as part of a $1.1 million deal he made in 2017 and 2018 to promote a poverty-fighting initiative. The state auditor reported that he initially repaid $500,000 and in May the Mississippi Department of Human Services filed a lawsuit against Favre, saying interest on the $1.1 million amounted to $228,000.
States are prohibited from using money from the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program on “brick and mortar” buildings and the effort to circumvent federal regulations to build the volleyball stadium has already resulted in a criminal conviction.
Zach New, Nancy New’s son, admitted in an April plea agreement to defrauding the government when he participated in a scheme “to disguise the USM construction project as a ‘lease’ as a means of circumventing the limited purpose grant’s strict prohibition against ‘brick and mortar’ construction projects in violation of Miss. Code Ann. 97-7-10.”
Favre briefly was questioned more than two years ago by the FBI, Mississippi Today reported last week. Holmes told the outlet that Favre was asked one question and he believes Favre has not been interviewed since. Mississippi Community Education Center hired Favre Enterprises in 2017 and 2018 to make appearances to promote Families First for Mississippi, a program designed to help needy families, and Favre was a no-show for those.
In 2020, the former NFL quarterback denied that he had “received monies for obligations I didn’t meet,” saying, “I love Mississippi and I would never knowingly do anything to take away from those that need it most.”
Mississippi had the highest poverty rate in the nation, with 20.3 percent living below the poverty line, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2019 American Community Survey. The U.S. poverty rate nationally is 13.4 percent.
Former Mississippi governor helped Brett Favre obtain welfare funds for university volleyball stadium, texts show
An investigative report by Mississippi Today revealed Tuesday that former Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant helped former NFL quarterback Brett Favre obtain welfare funds in order to help build a new volleyball center at the University of Southern Mississippi.
The news organization reviewed text messages from 2017 and 2019 that were filed Monday in the state of Mississippi’s civil lawsuit over misspent welfare funds. The texts were filed by an attorney representing Nancy New, who has already pleaded guilty to 13 felony counts of bribery, fraud and racketeering for her role in the welfare scheme. New was the founder of the Mississippi Community Education Center, which was tasked with spending tens of millions in federal welfare funds to help the state.
State auditors determined nonprofit leaders misspent at least $77 million in welfare funds in the largest case of public fraud in Mississippi history.
The texts show Favre, New and Bryant discussing how to divert at least $5 million in welfare funds to build a volleyball stadium at Southern Miss. Favre played football at Southern Miss, and his daughter was a volleyball player there at the time some of the texts were sent.
“If you were to pay me is there anyway the media can find out where it came from and how much?” Favre asked New in 2017.
After telling Favre that “we never have that information publicized,” she circled back to him the next day.
“Wow, just got off the phone with Phil Bryant! He is on board with us! We will get this done!” New told Favre.
In another text sent in July 2019, Bryant told New he had just finished meeting with Favre and asked her if they could help him with his project.
Favre’s attorney, Bud Holmes, denied to Mississippi Today that the former quarterback knew he received welfare funds.
“Brett Favre has been honorable throughout this whole thing,” Holmes told the news organization.
Favre had told the outlet in 2020 that he had not discussed the volleyball stadium project with Bryant.
Bryant, who left office in January 2020, has long denied helping direct welfare funds to the stadium project, and he did not address the texts in a statement to Mississippi Today that accused New’s defense team of being “more concerned with pretrial publicity than they are with civil justice.”
Mississippi Today reported that the volleyball stadium is not part of the state’s civil lawsuit. Favre and Bryant have not been criminally charged.
Last year, Favre paid back $600,000 to the state of Mississippi, an amount he had been paid for speeches he never gave. Favre was commissioned in 2017 and 2018 to promote a state poverty-fighting initiative, receiving $1.1 million. The state auditor’s office reported that he initially gave back $500,000 of the amount, but earlier this month, Favre was asked in a letter to repay the remainder plus interest.
Then, in May, the Mississippi Department of Human Services filed a civil lawsuit against Favre because he had not paid back interest on the $1.1 million that amounted to $228,000.
According to the text messages in the filing obtained by Mississippi Today, the $1.1 million deal with the state was another means of funding the volleyball stadium project.
Reuters contributed to this report.