Corridor of Fame quarterback Brett Favre, talking Tuesday at a Congressional listening to on the misuse of welfare funds in Mississippi, stated he was not too long ago recognized with Parkinson’s illness.
Parkinson’s illness is a progressive dysfunction of the nervous system that causes nerve cells in components of the mind to weaken. The illness impacts motion and stability and causes tremors and muscle stiffness, making it tough to stroll, discuss or full different easy duties, based on the Nationwide Institute of Neurological Issues and Stroke. Favre, 54, revealed the prognosis as he spoke to the Home Methods and Means Committee and introduced up Prevacus, a former drug firm that acquired $2 million of Short-term Help for Needy Households (TANF) funds.
“Sadly, I additionally misplaced an funding in an organization that I believed was growing a breakthrough concussion drug I believed would assist others,” Favre stated. “I’m positive you’ll perceive whereas it’s too late for me as a result of I’ve been not too long ago recognized with Parkinson’s. That is additionally a trigger pricey to my coronary heart. Lately, the physician working the corporate pleaded responsible to taking TANF cash for his personal use.”
Favre was at one time the most important particular person exterior investor and stockholder of Prevacus. In July, Prevacus founder Jacob VanLandingham pleaded responsible to wire fraud. VanLandingham admitted to a Mississippi decide that he used funds he acquired by his firm for private use, together with to repay playing money owed.
In 2022, the state of Mississippi sued a bunch of 38 folks or organizations, together with Favre, to recoup the cash it stated was fraudulently diverted from TANF, a federal program that gives grant funds to states for households in want.
The lawsuit stated Favre acquired over $1 million for speeches he didn’t give; he has since returned the cash. Moreover, the College of Southern Mississippi, Favre’s alma mater and the varsity the place his daughter performed volleyball, acquired $5 million in welfare funds, and a volleyball facility was later constructed on the faculty.
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Favre, who has not been charged criminally, has maintained his innocence and stated he didn’t know the place the funding for the volleyball facility got here from.
On Monday, he informed the Home Methods and Means Committee, which is inspecting states’ accountability in utilizing welfare funds, that the TANF scandal has tarnished his status and harm him financially. Favre referred to as for the implementation of TANF reforms to forestall future abuse of funds.
“I urge Congress to place TANF guardrails in place to make sure that what occurred in Mississippi doesn’t occur once more,” Favre stated. “To assist low-income Individuals discover and maintain a job, to restrict how states can spend TANF grants and cut back wasteful paperwork and to guard taxpayer funds from fraud and abuse.”
(Photograph: Kevin Dietsch / Getty Photographs)