Defense witness says ex-wrestler DiBiase planned apps to ‘gamify’ welfare work
On the 17th day of the trial, a defense witness testified that former WWE wrestler Ted “Teddy” DiBiase sought to develop phone apps to encourage fitness and reach troubled teens as part of work tied to Mississippi’s welfare agency, while prosecutors presented forensic evidence of millions in payments to companies linked to DiBiase.
Kevin McClendon, co-founder and former CEO of Birmingham-based Telegraph Creative, told jurors Tuesday that he met DiBiase more than a decade ago and later was introduced to John Davis, the then-director of the Mississippi Department of Human Services. McClendon said Davis brought DiBiase into the agency’s circle in 2017 and helped secure about $3 million in federal public assistance funds for projects the defense says were legitimate contracts.
McClendon described a proposed app called Get Fit that would use guided workout plans, cooking lessons and celebrity videos to “gamify” work by the agency and collect data on residents’ food purchases. He said the pitch deck envisioned appearances by DiBiase and other Mississippi figures, and included challenges such as the “forget fried challenge” to unlock content. Assistant U.S. Attorney Dave Fulcher quipped on cross-examination that “baked okra sounds terrible,” according to court testimony.
The prosecution presented records showing payments between companies controlled by McClendon and DiBiase. Telegraph paid DiBiase’s company Priceless Ventures more than $7,000 in 2017, and Priceless paid McClendon’s company Nonfiction $25,000 in 2018, court evidence showed. McClendon testified he could not recall the reasons for those payments. Mississippi Today’s review of a forensic audit showed MDHS directly paid Telegraph $57,500 in 2017-18 for a marketing audit, a payment auditors found allowable but said should not have used welfare dollars, the outlet reported.
Earlier, FBI forensic accountant Matthew Auckerman testified that his analysis of bank records showed nearly $3 million flowed from two welfare-funded nonprofits to accounts associated with DiBiase’s LLCs, and that he considered Priceless Ventures and Familiae Orientem to be shell companies. Auckerman told jurors that some funds bought a $55,000 pontoon boat, a $40,000 truck and nearly $31,000 in country club fees and golf equipment, and that about $2.7 million was transferred to personal accounts and toward the purchase of a 6,000-foot home in Madison and a high-dollar investment account.
Auckerman also testified that monthly deposits to accounts controlled by DiBiase and his wife averaged about $10,000 in the three and a half years before the nonprofit contracts, and rose to roughly $200,000 a month in 2018. Defense attorney Sidney Lampton pressed Auckerman on whether the payments could be traced to federal sources; prosecutors said the intent to use federal funds was the key issue. The defense called a second witness Wednesday, consultant Matt Theriot, who testified that forming multiple LLCs with no employees is common to limit liability.
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