MISSISSIPPI SWINDLE

How a Mississippi state auditor and a small team of investigators uncovered a scandal that made national headlines and cast a beloved sports hero as a villain.

In 2019 White first learned from Governor Phil Bryant about a kickback scheme involving John Davis, the director of the Mississippi Department of Health Services. What he did not know was that his investigations would bring to light a $100 million welfare fraud scheme that involved misuse of federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families funds in that poverty-stricken state. For the next two years and often at great personal cost, White and his colleagues followed a money trail through a maze of government corruption that led to a host of shady characters. One, a charismatic Toshiba copier salesman and drug addict, convinced Davis to fund his various companies with TANF dollars for work that had nothing to do with serving low-income families. Another, an ex-teacher turned campaign donor, misused a nonprofit community education organization to collect millions in TANF funds, which she used in part to fund a wealthy lifestyle. Still another was football legend Brett Favre, who used his own nonprofit to launder TANF money he then donated to his alma mater, the University of South Mississippi. White’s scrupulous attention to the details of this case is as admirable as his goal of demonstrating that some public servants can and will stand up to powerful forces bent on abusing their power. In his words, “returning the public’s faith in the idea that the entire edifice of American life operates for their general welfare…is a twenty-first-century requirement for a healthy republic.”

Illuminating and disturbing.