I know there is a thread on this, but after spending an hour or two down the rabbit hole, I though I would summarize what I found. If anyone cares.
A couple of preliminaries:
1) I have no attachment to BF one way or the other.
2) By background, I am an attorney, and spent most of my professional life working in the ultra high net worth space. I have a lot of theoretical and practical knowledge about this parts of this.
The crime:
1). Definitely money went from public funds intended for needy families to pay for a volleyball stadium (and other things). Certainly sounds like a misappropriation of funds. Lots of indictments for this. What I have not seen is any evidence that the people involved were getting personally enriched. Not really clear why someone would do this? It actually seems like the gov't administrators were using the money on their pet projects rather than intended purpose (i.e. vball stadium not food for families). This is bad but different than skimming. On the other hand it is possible that there is serious skimming that is not evident in what I read.
2). Lot of politics involved as the sitting Governor, and both the Democratic and Republican candidate were caught up to some extent.
BF:
1). BF got paid $1.1MM to do appearances to raise money for the stadium (or for a non-profit not quite clear). Money came through the same group that was misappropriating funds. BF's behavior seems perfectly legal as I am sure he often gets paid to do appearances. Probably smarmy as he was also raising money for the stadium. Even if he knows where the money is coming from (seems unlikely) I think he is probably legally fine. He has paid the money back, although they had to twist his arm to get it all.
2). Favre 4 Hope gave money to USM, which is probably a stretch from its stated mission. Impossible to tell how much of a deal this is without seeing the foundation docs and who is on the board of directors/management of foundation. Bottom line this is almost certainly not a problem, legally. Again seems smarmy.
3 BF promised to get the vball stadium built and tried to get everyone to chip in. He was pushy and did not want to have to fund himself (although he probably could have). In all I have read, it does not appear that he has done anything illegal. The morality of it you will have to judge yourself.
A good chance this post ages badly, as it sounds like more indictments are to come. There may be a lot we don't yet know.
Hopefully sharing this means I did not totally waste my time going through all of it.
I can ask the government all day to pay my mortgage, they have the responsibility to say 'no', but it's not illegal for me to ask.
The welfare fraud sounds like he can claim he didnt know where the money came from, I just don't buy it.
Why so many grown men idolize this ass clown I’ll have no idea, by all accounts he’s been an inlikeable asshole everywhere he went that thought he was above it all. No surprise he thought his daughters volleyball court was more important than welfare and medical research. What an asshole.
I think those funds came from the same welfare fund, didn't they?
Why so many grown men idolize this ass clown I’ll have no idea, by all accounts he’s been an inlikeable asshole everywhere he went that thought he was above it all. No surprise he thought his daughters volleyball court was more important than welfare and medical research. What an asshole.
This. I never got the fascination with Favre. Sloppy qb and always seemed like a douche.
Why so many grown men idolize this ass clown I’ll have no idea, by all accounts he’s been an inlikeable asshole everywhere he went that thought he was above it all. No surprise he thought his daughters volleyball court was more important than welfare and medical research. What an asshole.
I don't like Favre but his games played streak was an incredible accomplishment, considering the sport and position he plays.
You can't doubt his toughness.
The details in the civil suit are horrible, with regard to Prevacus/Odyssey, Southern Miss, and everything the New family’s “charity” touched. Granted, we’ve only seen the state’s side of the story, but good lord it’s disgusting.
On the criminal side, Nancy New and her son (who, like Favre, are not government officials) have already entered guilty pleas in state and federal court, and are cooperating to shorten their sentences to a few years in federal prison rather than decades in Mississippi’s gulag. They have a strong incentive to spill everything about everyone. If Favre skates, he will have dodged a nuclear-tipped missile.
If people don’t care about this story, that’s fine. If you do care, read the excellent, thorough coverage in Mississippi Today and draw your own conclusions.
The details in the civil suit are horrible, with regard to Prevacus/Odyssey, Southern Miss, and everything the New family’s “charity” touched. Granted, we’ve only seen the state’s side of the story, but good lord it’s disgusting.
On the criminal side, Nancy New and her son (who, like Favre, are not government officials) have already entered guilty pleas in state and federal court, and are cooperating to shorten their sentences to a few years in federal prison rather than decades in Mississippi’s gulag. They have a strong incentive to spill everything about everyone. If Favre skates, he will have dodged a nuclear-tipped missile.
If people don’t care about this story, that’s fine. If you do care, read the excellent, thorough coverage in Mississippi Today and draw your own conclusions.
What's wrong with that??
The details in the civil suit are horrible, with regard to Prevacus/Odyssey, Southern Miss, and everything the New family’s “charity” touched. Granted, we’ve only seen the state’s side of the story, but good lord it’s disgusting.
On the criminal side, Nancy New and her son (who, like Favre, are not government officials) have already entered guilty pleas in state and federal court, and are cooperating to shorten their sentences to a few years in federal prison rather than decades in Mississippi’s gulag. They have a strong incentive to spill everything about everyone. If Favre skates, he will have dodged a nuclear-tipped missile.
If people don’t care about this story, that’s fine. If you do care, read the excellent, thorough coverage in Mississippi Today and draw your own conclusions.
I read thru the summary, but it took a couple of hours to understand it all. Thought it might be helpful to summarize for people who care a little but are not stupid enough to spend 2 hours of their life reading this crap.
I agree looks horrible, but it was still not clear to me if the obvious bad actors (John Davis, Nancy New, etc.) were actually enriching themselves. I assume so, but it is not clear.
As to Favre, I never said no big deal. I said based on what we know so far I don't see legal jeopardy.
Seems this will play out for a very long time. Those in the wrong should be prosecuted regardless of status or affiliation. Pretty simple.
By the way, Davis didn’t just rip off TANF. He also ripped off the TEFAP, USDA’s emergency food assistance program. Unlike TANF, TEFAP is quite explicit about where the aid is supposed to go: operators of food banks, pantries and soup kitchens serving eligible poor people.
It also bears emphasis that this story would be newsworthy without Brett Favre - maybe not on the national level, and obviously not on a football fan site, but it’s a big scandal and the confessed crimes are serious. If this had happened in California, we’d be hearing it 24/7, with or without an NFL connection.
He clearly was OK with aiding the illegal activity.