Brett Favre, wrestlers sued by Mississippi over welfare misspending: report

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The Mississippi Department of Human Services is suing 38 people or companies, including retired NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre, for misspending millions in welfare money aimed to help the poorest state in the country, according to multiple reports. 

The lawsuit, filed in Hinds County Circuit Court, aims to recover the more than $20 million in cash it claims the defendants "squandered" from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families anti-poverty program.

"I do not understand these people," attorney Brad Pigott, who wrote the lawsuit, told Mississippi Today. "What kind of person would decide that money the law required to be spent helping the poorest people in the poorest state would be better spent being doled out by them to their own families, their own pet projects, and their own favorite celebrities?"

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The lawsuit was filed just weeks after the mother and son duo of Nancy New, 69, and Zachary New, 39, pleaded guilty to state criminal charges over the misspending. The duo agreed to testify against others in the corruption case, which auditor Shad White said was Mississippi’s largest in the past two decades.

They ran a nonprofit group and education company in the state, which received tens of millions of dollars under contracts with the Mississippi Department of Human Services; however, much of the money was illegally funneled to other nonprofits or contractors, considered "second-tier" recipients of the department, the outlet reported. 

Some of the welfare money was spent on drug rehabilitation in California for former pro wrestler Brett DiBiase. He was named as a defendant in the