via
Mississippi Today's series: Backchannel
The Mississippi Department of Human Services has named Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre in a
lawsuit seeking to recoup roughly $24 million in misspent welfare funds intended to combat poverty in one of the nation's poorest states.
The lawsuit filed on Monday seeks $3.2 million combined from Favre and Favre Enterprises, Inc. Favre is one of 38 defendants in the lawsuit that also names former pro wrestlers Brett and Ted DiBiase and their father Ted DiBiase Sr. aka "The Million Dollar Man," to promote a drug manufactured by Prevacus which the former governor was trying to lure to Mississippi to build a manufacturing plant.
Favre was the largest individual outside stockholder in Florida pharmaceutical start-up Prevacus, which claimed to be developing a drug to treat concussions. The lawsuit alleges that Favre urged business partner and Prevacus CEO Jake VanLandingham “to solicit Nancy New to use MDHS grant proceeds to invest in the stock of Prevacus, informing VanLandingham that Nancy New had previously provided substantial grant funds on his behalf.”
Brett Favre has repaid $600,000 in state welfare money he accepted for speeches where he didn't appear, according to
NPR.
Mississippi is of course Republican run, and always has been, and this story is yet another example of Republicans stealing from the poor to give to the rich. Republicans never met a federal program they didn't dream of raiding for their own benefit.
Poverty in the US is NOT a personal or moral failing - it is the direct result of entrenched, systemic, institutional greed and corruption at every level of our power structure that Republicans and their base seem to take advantage of.
