Mississippi sues NFL Hall of Famer Brett Favre over misspent welfare dollars

The Mississippi Department of Human Services on Monday sued retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre, three former pro wrestlers and several other people and businesses to try to recover millions of misspent welfare dollars that were intended to help some of the poorest people in the United States.

The lawsuit says the defendants “squandered” more than $20m in money from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families anti-poverty program.

The suit was filed less than two weeks after a mother and son who ran a nonprofit group and an education company in Mississippi pleaded guilty to state criminal charges tied to the misspending. Nancy New, 69, and Zachary New, 39, agreed to testify against others in what state auditor Shad White has called Mississippi’s largest public corruption case in the past two decades.

In early 2020, Nancy and Zachary New, former Mississippi Department of Human Services executive director John Davis and three other people were charged in state court, with prosecutors saying welfare money had been misspent on items such as drug rehabilitation in Malibu, California, for former pro wrestler Brett DiBiase.

DiBiase is a defendant in the lawsuit filed on Monday is are his father and brother, Ted DiBiase Sr and Ted “Teddy” DiBiase Jr, who also were pro wrestlers.

Ted DiBiase Sr was known as the “The Million Dollar Man” while wrestling. He is a Christian evangelist and a motivational speaker, and he ran Heart of David Ministries Inc, which received $1.7m in welfare grant money in 2017 and 2018 for mentorship, marketing and other services, according to the lawsuit.

White last year demanded repayment of $77m of misspent welfare funds from several people and groups, including $1.1m paid to Favre, who lives in