The United States. Social safety nets sometimes fails the people
who need it most. And in Mississippi, Recent reporting has revealed
how political corruption, celebrity and power combined to fleece.
The state's most vulnerable. Residents of ours has our report.
Judy. Tens of millions of dollars meant to assist families in need
were instead used for personal expenses and pet projects unrelated
to Mississippi's welfare program as part of an ongoing lawsuit last
week, a former director of the state's welfare agency, guilty two
counts of conspiracy and fraud and faces up to 15 years in prison.
The scandal has rocked the poorest state in the nation and has now
raised questions about the roles of prominent Mississippians, including
football Hall of Famer Brett Farve and former governor Phil Bryant,
Mississippi Today reporter Anna Wolf broke the story and joins me
now from Jackson, Mississippi. And welcome to the news hour. Thanks
for joining us. You broke this story as we mentioned in enormous
alleged fraud scheme there, the part that caught the nation's attention.
Was this $5 million effort to funnel those welfare funds to a volleyball
program where Brett Farve daughter plays just lay that out for us?
What did you learn from your reporting back in 2020 after six people
were arrested from the state auditor's office in this scheme allegedly
to steal $4 million from the state's welfare program. We learned
pretty quickly that
Five million had gone to build a volleyball stadium at the University
of Southern Mississippi, which is the alma mater of Brett Farve,
and that Brentford's daughter played volleyball at the university.
The state auditor said. This was the biggest public fraud case in
state history. What does that entail? How big are we talking? Questioned
a total of $94 million in federal spending from the Mississippi Department
of Human Services, which is our Social Safety Net agency in Mississippi.
Um, you know, the money went in, um, a number of kind of wild ways
to, uh, the political cronies and friends and family and, um, quite
a few sports celebrities as well. Um, and so the money wasn't going
to programs that we're actually helping people out of poverty. Instead,
they were spent on, um things like speeches from sports celebrities
and the volleyball stadium Or, um, you know, fancy centers with
Um, virtual reality equipment. These kinds of things, Uh, instead
of being used on, you know, direct, tangible assistance for Mississippi
is very important Families, which again? This is the poorest state
in the country with one of the highest poverty rates, and that money
was not being used to help Those folks tell me more about that. What
kind of difference with that money have made specifically in Mississippi?
Who would it have helped? We went down to Hattiesburg to kind of
take a look at the volleyball stadium when we found out about it
back in
In 2020, and we interviewed people around the community. You know
people, um, you know, maybe living in poverty, um, single parents,
uh and we asked them what they would have liked to have seen this
money spent on and one man that we spoke to actually had his kids
taken away. Um, because he was homeless about five years before this,
and he told us that he in going to the social service organizations
that could have benefited from these funds.
He asked them for help for rental assistance, You know, to to put
a roof over his head to get his kid back, and they he was turned
away. He was told that there wasn't any support available for him.
Um, So these are the kinds of stories that you know it's one thing
that taxpayer money went to this, Uh, sports celebrity. Who has you
know many millions himself. Um, but it's another thing to think about
the missed opportunities for people who so desperately needed this
assistance and that it wasn't there for them, and the text messages
here were central to your reporting, and there's one text exchange.
I want to highlight that was revealed.
From your work. It's between Brett Farve and a woman named Nancy
knew who ran the nonprofit that distributed a lot of these funds.
And in it far of writes quote, if you were to pay me is there any
way the media can find out where it came from? And how much Nancy
New response quote? No. We never have had that information publicized.
I understand you being uneasy about that, though, that we should
say that Brat Forbes attorney Ana says he never knew the money was
from a welfare fund. But what have you found from your reporting?
She says that he doesn't know.
This money came from federal fund called temporary Assistance for
Needy Families, most commonly known for providing the welfare check
to very poor families. Um, but he did know that it was grant money
and in some cases, the text messages show even that, he said that
he figured that she was supporting him with federal grant money.
At one point, he told his business associate, he was working with
another company to try to get welfare money.
For a pharmaceutical startup company that ended up receiving two
million in allegedly stolen welfare funds. And he told his business
associate at the time that, um, you know that he knew that Nancy
knew this nonprofit founder would be helpful because she gave him
$5 million via grant funds for the volleyball stadium. So you kind
of see in the text messages their mentality around this spending.
You know, this was this was something for Brett Farr personally,
um, you know, in the way that he's described
Bing it in these text messages, and it also shows some their their
attempts to sort of operate in secrecy, right?
Um none of the money that was being spent from these nonprofits was
really being recorded and then reflected back to the state agency.
So when I was trying to get expenditure reports and asking the agency
to show me how they were spending the money and what they were doing
for people in poverty. There wasn't any data to to show for it because
that nonprofit had kind of turned into a black hole, as she described
in that text message where she says We don't publicize that information.
And I want to be clear about one thing I know in your reporting.
You used the word
The misuse of funds a lot. We've seen that again and again.
Were laws broken in any of this When you talk about money going to
a volleyball program, for example, that's a really good point because
there is a difference between misuse, like miss spending, or even
spending outside of federal regulations and a crime right. There
have been six people who have been charged with crimes. Um there
is a large civil suit that the state is bringing against.
A number of other people, including Brett Farve, Um, that doesn't
allege a crime took place. But it does allege that they received
money improperly and asked them to return the funds. And so you kind
of have to look at each purchase to say, Okay, whether this is just
bad government or whether this is miss spending or whether it is
a crime, and that is something that we will learn more about. I think
as the federal investigation criminal investigation into this matter
continues. Brett Farve has not been charged with a crime, so Bryant
has not been charged.
With the crime. But the people who have have agreed to work with
federal prosecutors in their ongoing probe, and I think we're going
to see if that's going to result in, um
And and those folks being held accountable for their role in the
scandal. It's an incredible story will continue to follow. First
broken by Mississippi today, reporter Anna Wolf and I Thank you for