The news keeps going from bad to worse for Brett Favre in the Mississippi welfare scandal.
Favre’s shady text messages link him to the embezzlement of millions of dollars meant for his state’s poorest residents to fund a football facility and a volleyball arena for his daughter on the campus of Southern Miss. University, Favre’s alma mater.
Investigators are also looking at Favre’s relationship and salesmanship related to a “concussion cream” that claimed to help concussion victims recover from their head injuries.
The sordidness isn’t stopping there, either.
ESPN on Monday reported that two scandal-linked companies backed by Favre “exaggerated the known effectiveness of their drugs during efforts to raise money, according to interviews and documents.”
Documents revealed the Florida-based companies, Prevacus and PresolMD, and their founder, Jake VanLandingham, faced “substantial debts over the past several years, even as VanLandingham was pressing potential investors to help get his two drugs to market.” VanLandingham faces allegations his companies received “more than $2.1 million” in government funds earmarked for welfare recipients.
“I had no idea this was welfare money, and I’ve always been an upstanding person when it comes to research,” VanLandingham told ESPN.
Favre declined the network’s request to comment. Favre has declared his innocence in the past.
[ESPN]