Brett Favre denies receiving $1.1 million and not showing up for events in Mississippi
Longtime Green Bay Packers quarterback and Hall of Famer Brett Favre allegedly received $1.1 million from the state of Mississippi for speaking appearances he didn’t make, part of a larger multimillion-dollar welfare fraud scheme in the state.
On Friday, though, Favre denied those allegations completely in an appearance on ESPN Radio Wisconsin. He claims he was paid for ads, commercials and public service announcements instead.
“I did ads that ran for three years, was paid for it, no different than any other time that I’ve done endorsements for other people, and I went about my way,” Favre said on ESPN Radio Wisconsin, via USA Today. “For (the auditor) to say I took $1.1 million and didn’t show up for speaking engagements is absolutely, 100 percent not true.’’
A state audit of funds intended to help at-need Mississippi residents alleges that more than $94 million of federal money was improperly spent in the scheme. Favre’s company, Favre Enterprises, was allegedly paid $500,000 in 2017 and $600,000 in 2018 for appearances which were to include promotions, autographs and speaking engagements.
Auditors, per the report, “were able to determine that the individual contracted did not speak nor was he present for those events.”
Favre denied the allegations on Wednesday in a series of Tweets, too, saying that he “never received monies for obligations I didn’t meet.” He is also repaying the $1.1 million to the state.
2/4 I have never received monies for obligations I didn’t meet. To reiterate Auditors White’s statement, 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.
— Brett Favre (@BrettFavre) May 7, 2020
Favre — who played in the league from 1991-2010, and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2016 — stood by that denial on Friday, too. The allegations that he didn’t show up to events, he said, are “ridiculous.”
“I, in no way, did anything wrong … or [took] any money. I have never no-showed anyone in regards to speaking engagements, or commercials or anything of that nature," Favre said on ESPN Radio Wisconsin, via USA Today.
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