A couple days after it surfaced that Brett Favre’s company was paid $1.1M for speeches the Hall-of-Fame quarterback never made, he said he will pay the money back to the state of Mississippi.
State Auditor Shad White told the Jackson Clarion-Ledger Favre paid his office $500,000 Wednesday and he would “repay the remainder in installments over the next few months.”
The auditor said the money will be returned to the Mississippi Department of Human Services for welfare-related expenditures.
“I want to applaud Mr. Favre for his good faith effort to make this right and make the taxpayers and TANF families whole,” White said in a statement. “To date, we have seen no records indicating Mr. Favre knew that TANF was the program that served as the source of the money he was paid.”
Favre tweeted about the incident.
1/4 My agent is often approached by different products and brands for me to appear in one way or another. This request was no different, and I did numerous ads for Families First.
— Brett Favre (@BrettFavre) May 7, 2020
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
3/4 I have spent my entire career helping children through Favre 4 Hope donating nearly $10 million to underserved and underprivileged children in Mississippi and Wisconsin.
— Brett Favre (@BrettFavre) May 7, 2020
4/4 It has brought a ton of joy to my life, and I would certainly never do anything to take away from the children I have fought to help! I love Mississippi and I would never knowingly do anything to take away from those that need it most.
— Brett Favre (@BrettFavre) May 7, 2020