Brett Favre Was Paid More Than $1M for Events He Didn't Attend, Per Audit

NFL Hall of Famer Brett Favre received payments of more than $1 million for speaking engagements he never attended, a Mississippi state audit revealed, according to Cindy Boren of the Washington Post.

Favre, however, is not facing criminal charges. Those payments are considered "questioned" costs because "auditors either saw clear misspending or could not verify the money had been lawfully spent," state auditor Shad White told the Associated Press. 

The state audited the Department of Human Services, which reportedly gave $94 million to two nonprofit organizations which then spent it "suspiciously." Former DHS director John Davis was charged with embezzling around $4 million in funds from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program in February. Five other people were also charged in the investigation.

Favre Enterprises received two payments from the DHS—a $500,000 payment in Dec. 2017 and a $600,000 payment in June 2018. Both were for speeches at the Mississippi Community Education Center. Favre was supposed to make three speeches in total, though he reportedly didn't make any.

"Upon a cursory review of those dates, auditors were able to determine that the individual contracted did not speak nor was he present for those events," the audit read.

The $94 million in misallocated money, intended as welfare for underprivileged Mississippians, was instead used for a number of expenditures, including but not limited to:

• Hiring Davis' family members. 
• Paying lobbyists.
• Paying the Victory Sports Foundation to run fitness camps that state legislators attended for free.
• Buying three cars for Nancy New of the Mississippi Community Education Center and her two sons. Cellphones and other expenditures were also paid for using the money.
• Sponsoring NCAA events (including a baseball tournament).
• Paying wrestlers Ted DiBiase, Ted DiBiase, Jr., and Brett DiBiase for work not done and "unreasonable" travel costs.

According to Anna Wolfe of Mississippi Today, Favre had been trying to get the pharmaceutical company Prevacus—for which he is a spokesperson and investor—to relocate to Mississippi.

It was the DHS, however, that took the meeting to discuss concussion research, not the Mississippi Development Authority, which often handles recruiting new businesses to the state.