Brett Favre hasn’t repaid $600K in state welfare funds: report

Former NFL quarterback Brett Favre has still not repaid $600,000 of Mississippi welfare funds he received from a non-profit for speaking engagements he did not attend, according to a report Thursday.

Favre, 51, promised last year to repay the remaining portion of $1.1 million he received from the Mississippi Community Education Center, whose former leader has now been indicted in a welfare embezzlement scheme.

However, the Hall of Famer still hasn’t made good on the assurance, Mississippi Today reported.

Favre — who previously claimed he was not aware the money was intended to help poor families — has not been accused of a crime, but he agreed to return the funds after a state audit found the nonprofit paid him to promote a federally-funded anti-poverty initiative called Families First for Mississippi.

“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,” Favre tweeted in May 2020.

The former quarterbacker then made an initial payment of $500,000 last May.

But a spokesperson for the auditor’s office confirmed to Mississippi Today Thursday that the former Green Bay Packers great has not made any additional payments beyond the initial $500,000.

However, federal authorities are still investigating the payment to Favre, so one has formally demanded the amount be repaid, according to the report.

The audit disclosing Favre’s payment was released months after a former Mississippi Department of Human Services director and five others were indicted for allegedly embezzling roughly $4 million.

They previously pleaded not guilty in what the state’s auditor has characterized as the largest public embezzlement scheme in Mississippi history.

Meanwhile, Favre has disputed the auditor’s findings that he received the money for multiple speaking engagements he didn’t attend, claiming he was instead paid for his role in radio and public service announcements and advertisements that aired for years in the state.

“For (the auditor) to say I took $1.1 million and didn’t show up for speaking engagements is absolutely, 100% not true,” Favre told ESPN Wisconsin last May.

He reiterated that again in a May tweet, insisting he did “numerous ads” for Families First and was never paid for “obligations” he didn’t honor.

Favre, a Kiln native who now lives in southern Mississippi, did not return calls and messages Thursday, Mississippi Today reported.

The Hall of Fame quarterback’s longtime agent, James “Bus” Cook, said he had no knowledge of Favre’s contract with the nonprofit, nor his promise to repay the welfare money he received, according to the report.

With Post wires