Brett Favre pleads innocence in $77,000,000 welfare fraud lawsuit
Brett Favre has pleaded his innocence in an ongoing welfare fraud lawsuit. Favre is one of 47 defendants named in a lawsuit regarding the Mississippi welfare scandal, which saw a misappropriation of roughly $77 million of state funds.
The Hall of Fame quarterback was involved as he asked the state for funds for a volleyball court for the University of Southern Mississippi. He played football at the university and his daughter was a member of the volleyball team from 2017 to 2022.
Not only did Brett Favre ask for state funds to build the new volleyball court, but it's alleged that at least $5 million of the welfare funds were channelled to a new facility. After the news became public, he denied any wrongdoing and said that he didn't know the funds were supposed to go to needy families.
However, the case was taken to the court and speaking on The Go Long Podcast, Brett Favre pled his innocence.
"There's a gag order placed by the judge. I have two months to go. Which is good, but it's also like - it's good because the gag order's only for people who are involved with the lawsuit. I'm involved in a civil lawsuit. It's sad, it really is. Cause I would never do what I was accused of doing.
"But I can't talk about it at the moment due to the gag order. I don't know when that'll be lifted. Believe me, as soon as it's lifted, we can talk more in depth about it. I hope people know, especially people who know me. I know they know I would never do what the accusations state I've done. So, I'll leave it at that."
Brett Favre welfare fraud lawsuit timeline
Brett Favre first asked for a new volleyball court sometime in the summer of 2017. He took the request to the then-Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant. He then asked the Mississippi Community Education Center founder Nancy New about getting paid to help build the court.
In 2018, Brett Favre got tied to the lawsuit again as a pharmaceutical company was named in the scandal. According to reports, Favre was a top investor in Bryant on Prevacus and the company made $2.15 million from the scheme.
Then, in 2019, Favre began demanding the school build an indoor football facility to help recruit Shedeur Sanders. Favre pressed for state funds for the facility to be built.
In 2020, an eight-month-long investigation and the audit was released and it showed that $1.1 million was given to Favre Enterprises as payment for three speaking appearances. However, Favre did not attend any of the events but still received the money.