The price may have been too much.
The son of former pro wrestler Ted DiBiase Sr., better known as “The Million Dollar Man,” could face up to 120 years in prison if found guilty of multiple counts of wire fraud after being charged with “misappropriating millions of dollars in federal safety-net funds intended for needy families and low-income individuals” in the state of Mississippi.
Ted “Teddy” DiBaise Jr., who was a WWE wrestler in the 2000s and 2010s, allegedly “fraudulently obtained federal funds,” in addition to co-conspirators John Davis, Christi Webb, and Nancy New, among others, “that they misappropriated for their own personal use and benefit,” The Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs announced Thursday.
The 40-year-old DiBiase is charged with six counts of wire fraud, four counts of money laundering, two counts of theft concerning programs receiving federal funds, as well as one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and to commit theft concerning programs receiving federal funds.
DiBiase, who pleaded not guilty Thursday in a court appearance, could face up to 120 years behind bars in convicted on all six counts of wire fraud.
The additional charges carry up to 65 years.
“DiBiase allegedly used these federal funds to buy a vehicle and a boat, and for the down payment on the purchase of a house, among other expenditures,” the Justice Department said in a news release Thursday.
According to the indictment, Davis directed funds from The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program to two nonprofit organizations — Family Resource Center of North Mississippi Inc., directed by Webb, and Mississippi Community Education Center, directed by New.
Webb and New have both pleaded guilty in the welfare fraud scandal.
Davis told Webb and New to award contracts in 2017 and 2018 to DiBiase’s companies, Priceless Ventures LLC and Familiae Orientem LLC, for social services that the companies did not provide, the indictment said.
Davis pleaded guilty last year to charges tied to welfare misspending in state’s largest public corruption case, including $160,000 spent on drug rehabilitation in Malibu, California, for former pro wrestler Brett DiBiase, the brother of DiBiase.
Brett DiBiase has pleaded guilty to state and federal charges tied to the case.
DiBiase’s attorney, Scott Gilbert, said in a statement that Thursday was a good day for his client.
“After being forced to sit quietly for nearly three years while opportunists took unabated swings at Teddy and his family, Teddy now has the opportunity to fight back publicly,” Gilbert said. “As much as every one of us have the right to decide for ourselves whether our government is effective or prudent in the way it carries out its functions, criminalizing what, in hindsight, may be fairly characterized as poor fiscal management by the executive branch of state government is a dangerous and worrisome precedent.”
The welfare misspending scandal has ensnared high-profile figures, including retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre, who is not facing criminal charges but is among more than three dozen defendants in a civil lawsuit that the current Human Services director filed last year to try to recover some of the welfare money wasted while Davis was in charge.
With AP
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