Mississippi auditor wants Favre to repay $800K or face civil lawsuit

Mississippi state Auditor Shad White wants former NFL star Brett Favre to repay more than $800,000 in welfare funds or face a civil lawsuit. 

In a statement on Tuesday, White said that Favre and his company, Favre Enterprises, owe the state $826,000 for misspending funds from the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) welfare program.

Favre Enterprises was paid $1.1 million between 2017 and 2018 for three scheduled speaking events that he never attended.

Favre, who has claimed he didn’t know the money came from federal welfare funds, paid back $500,000 of the money, but White’s office has told The Associated Press that no formal agreement had been made to pay back the remaining $600,000.

Tuesday’s demand for $826,000 includes the $600,000 that his company still owes plus interest, according to Mississippi Today.

In a letter to Favre obtained by the outlet, White said his demand reflects “illegal expenditures of public funds made to you or to entities or combines for which you are legally obligated to pay and/or the unlawful dispositions of public property.”

“These illegal expenditures and unlawful dispositions were made when you knew or had reason to know through the exercise of reasonable diligence that the expenditures were illegal and/or the dispositions were unlawful,” the letter continues.

Favre was one of several people — including board members, nonprofit executives and other individuals — from whom White is demanding a total of $77 million in misspent funds, according to his office’s statement.

Wrestler Ted DiBiase Jr. is on the hook for $3.9 million. The Marcus Dupree Foundation, controlled by football player Marcus Dupree, is separately on the hook for nearly $790,000. 

If the demands are not repaid in 30 days, then the Mississippi attorney general’s office must enforce the demands in court, White’s office said. The demands are civil in nature, not criminal.