The Mississippi Department of Human Services recently filed a lawsuit against 38 people, and amongst those people are the DiBiase family. The lawsuit is in regards to allegations of misspent funds. The DHS issued a press release Monday announcing the civil complaint.
Brett DiBiase pleaded guilty to charges related to the scandal back in December of 2020. He is accused of having conspired with five others to pull off what is being described as the largest case of embezzlement in the history of the state of Mississippi. Brett DiBiase received $48,000 from the DHS as the business Restore2. He also used falsified documents, invoices, reports, and ledgers to receive and cover up the payments.
He has agreed to pay back the money in restitution with his sentencing being differed. As for Ted DiBiase Sr., his Heart of David Ministries religious non-profit allegedly received over $2.1 million in welfare from the state of Mississippi.
You can check out the announcement below:
MDHS Commences Civil Litigation Against Parties Receiving Misspent TANF Funds
The Mississippi Department of Human Services (MDHS) today filed a civil complaint against 38 parties alleged to have been responsible for or to have been recipients of misspent TANF funds identified in the forensic audit conducted by MDHS.
“Governor Tate Reeves tasked me with correcting the path of MDHS,” said Bob Anderson, Executive Director of MDHS.
“As part of that process, MDHS has been working hard to restore trust and put in place numerous internal controls to ensure that misspending is not repeated in the future,” Anderson stated. “The rest of the task involves recovering and returning to the taxpayers the millions of dollars in misspent funds which were intended to benefit Mississippi’s needy families. We begin that task today with the filing of this civil complaint.”
Lastly, Anderson emphasized that, “This is our initial complaint, as in any civil lawsuit, as discovery proceeds, we anticipate that additional parties and additional claims may be added or changed as the matter moves forward.”
MDHS has posted the findings of the independent forensic audit and steps taken to correct the issues on the agency website. To view the independent audit, please visit: https://www.mdhs.ms.gov/forensicaudit
Suspected fraud can be reported MDHS online any time submitting the MDHS Fraud Tip Form at https://www.mdhs.ms.gov/report-fraud/, calling the Fraud Tip Line during normal business hours at 1-(800)-299-6905, or email at [email protected]
As this is an active litigation, MDHS will not comment further on this case.
