April 20 (UPI) -- Former "Million Dollar Man" pro wrestler Theodore Marvin DiBiase Jr., the former head of Mississippi's Department of Human Services, and others have been indicted for allegedly misappropriating millions of dollars in federal money meant to help poor families.
The Justice Department unsealed the indictments Thursday.
The Justice Department said in a statement that, "DiBiase allegedly used these federal funds to buy a vehicle and a boat and for the downpayment on the purchase of a house, among other expenditures."
The alleged named co-conspirators are John Davis, Christi Webb, and Nancy New. Other so-far publicly unnamed co-conspirators assisted the fraud, according to the Justice Department.
Related
Davis was the MDHS director at the time. Webb operated the Family Resource Center of North Mississippi Inc. while New ran the Mississippi Community Education Center.
According to the indictments, Davis used his position at MDHS to misappropriate federal funds, including money from The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program.
He allegedly sent the money to the organizations run by Webb and New.
The indictment alleges they then awarded sham contracts to companies controlled by DiBiase. Those companies were Priceless Ventures LLC and Familiae Orientem LLC.
Under those contracts, the Justice Department said, DiBiase got federal money he was supposed to use for social services that he never provided and never intended to provide.
In May 2022, the Mississippi Department of Human Services sued DiBiase, former football player Brett Favre and dozens of others in an effort to recover millions of dollars in welfare funds. That lawsuit said the defendants "squandered" more than $20 million from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program.
DiBiase's son Brett DiBiase pleaded guilty in March to conspiracy to defraud the United States for his role in the Mississippi welfare funds theft scandal. He earlier had been hired as deputy administrator of the MDHS.
Theodore Marvin DiBiase is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and to commit theft concerning programs receiving federal funds, six counts of wire fraud, two counts of theft from programs getting federal funds, and four counts of money laundering.
If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison for the conspiracy count, a max of 20 years in prison for each wire fraud count, and a 10-year maximum sentence for each count of theft from programs receiving federal funds and for each count of money laundering.
