One spring day in 2018, entrepreneur and former WWE wrestler Ted “Teddy” DiBiase Jr. “became an instant millionaire,” a federal prosecutor told jurors Thursday.
Eight years later, DiBiase sat stoically in a federal courtroom as his trial in a sprawling welfare scandal neared a close.
In final arguments, prosecutors claimed DiBiase had deprived hungry Mississippians while taking nearly $3 million in federal grant money to fund his lavish lifestyle.
This spending was not the result of an illegal scheme by DiBiase, the defense retorted, but of a government in chaos.
In two of the 13 counts against him, the U.S. Attorney’s Office charged DiBiase with theft under a federal statute uncannily bearing the code section 666.
A piece of paper from a yellow legal pad sat propped on the desk facing DiBiase Thursday. Red handwritten letters read, “JESUS” and “NO WEAPON FORMED AGAINST ME SHALL PROSPER.”
After 19 days of trial, DiBiase’s fate was left up to jurors, who were expected to begin deliberating Friday.
Twelve Mississippians are now tasked with finding the facts and determining if accepting welfare funds in the manner DiBiase did constitutes a crime – something that has eluded lawyers, state officials and policy experts since the scandal broke six years ago.
DiBiase is the only person the federal government has indicted and put on trial in the sprawling welfare scheme in which auditors questioned purchases of up to $100 million from 2016 to 2020.
Seven people pleaded guilty to bills of information, charging documents the government uses when a defendant waives the right to a grand jury. This makes DiBiase’s case unique, because it is the only time prosecutors have been in the position of trying to convince a jury that conduct surrounding the misspending was a crime.
DiBiase began receiving federal funds in 2017 after the Mississippi Department of Human Services, under then-director John Davis, had outsourced much of its welfare delivery system to two nonprofit organizations to run a nebulous initiative called Families First for Mississippi.
The state agency and the two private entities, Mississippi Community Education Center and Family Resource Center of North Mississippi, claimed to be working together to usher in a new multi-generational approach to interrupting poverty. At just 32, DiBiase, who’d left the WWE and taken up leadership training, became one of Families First’s top purveyors.
Davis, a middle-aged man with no spouse or children and few friends, liked DiBase and elevated him to the highest levels of Mississippi government by arranging contracts between the nonprofit organizations and DiBiase’s LLCs. Davis and the nonprofit directors, Nancy New and Christi Webb, have all pleaded guilty to their roles in the scheme.
DiBiase’s contracts – containing jaw-dropping dollar amounts and signed in rapid succession – are at the heart of the case against him. The agreements listed tasks such as leadership outreach services, assessments of emergency food assistance needs and programs to help inner-city youth.
He did not use the money on operational expenses to carry out those tasks, the prosecution argued, but to purchase a boat, a truck, a 6,000-square foot house and take expensive vacations. The defense argues DiBiase was an independent contractor operating on no limits to his profit margin.
John Davis, former Mississippi Department of Human Services director, heads to the Thad Cochran United States Courthouse, Monday, Feb. 23, 2026, in Jackson. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi TodayThere would have been no financial windfall to DiBiase without Davis. The prosecution claimed in its closing remarks that by cozying up to Davis in exchange for cash, DiBiase was engaging in a common con artist operation called a “lonely hearts scam.” This term elicited an incredulous, cringed laugh from DiBiase’s father, former WWE star Ted “The Million Dollar Man” DiBiase, who sat on the court’s front row.
The defense called Davis “crazy as a loon” and said DiBiase never solicited the funds from the director.
The prosecution claimed DiBiase’s contracts were shams – “fake, bogus, pretend” – and that DiBiase never intended to complete the work. The documents were sloppy, with inconsistent terms and vague objectives, which could make it hard to discern whether the agreements were met.
“Exactly,” said U.S. Department of Justice trial attorney Adrienne Rosen. “It means that no one read it. No one cared about the terms of those contracts.”
The defense presented records and text messages to assert that DiBiase had a genuine desire to improve Mississippians’ lives. “I want to serve bro. That may seem insane to most people, but I really just want to help people,” DiBiase once texted Davis.
Defense lawyer Scott Gilbert said the welfare agency devolved into chaos when it shoved tens of millions of dollars into Families First with “no plan.” He said that despite the whole operation teeming with attorneys, including those who drafted or reviewed the contracts, no one expressed concerns to DiBiase.
“You couldn’t throw a dead cat in this case without hitting a lawyer,” Gilbert said.
And Gilbert argued DiBiase did, in fact, do his work: attending meetings, delivering presentations and drafting proposals to further Families First’s mission.
None of these things satisfied the purpose of the contracts, the prosecuted rebutted. The emails, texts and calendar entries were just ways to “paper over what really happened,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Dave Fulcher.
“What he did was put on the clothing of an MDHS employee, put on the clothing of somebody who would have made less than $100,000 a year, but instead he was paid $2 million a year,” Fulcher said.
Gilbert said in his client’s work with Davis, DiBiase never hid or operated with the kind of secrecy one might expect from someone committing fraud. After all, DiBiase traveled with Davis to Washington to testify before Congress about their programs.
“You don’t do that if you think you’re doing something illegal,” Gilbert said.
But Fulcher argued DiBiase got his contracts from the nonprofits, instead of the state agency, precisely so the records would not be publicly accessible.
“How they did it tells you why they did it,” Fulcher said. “… I suspect your common sense is telling you, ‘This isn’t right.’”
Gilbert acknowledged it was sad that this is how the national and state government worked, that welfare funds could be spent so flippantly. But he asked jurors to consider whether the evidence suggests a criminal conspiracy by DiBiase, “Or is this just a really crappy example of human behavior that falls at the feet of a lot of people?”
Several family friends attended court Thursday to support the wrestler, including Nick Coughlin, DiBiase’s former business partner who appeared as a witness in the case. Coughlin also worked under contracts with the nonprofits and is facing his own legal troubles in a parallel civil lawsuit over the alleged misspending.
Dozens of people or companies are still facing civil charges in that case, including people whose circumstances and conduct were similar to DiBiase’s. One thing that set DiBiase’s case apart from others was the sheer amount of money he personally received. Coughlin, for example, is being sued for less than $200,000 and is putting up a vigorous defense to the charge.
But both the prosecution and defense told jurors not to base their decision on the amount of money DiBiase received, however shocking. If it’s fraud, Gilbert noted, it would be fraud whether he’d received $2.9 million or $20,000.
DiBiase’s mom, Melanie DiBiase, who has attended each day of trial, said the years-long legal battle, an ordeal that should have torn her family apart, has only brought them closer together. Their faith in God has played a huge role.
“We can still stand with our heads high because the truth should prevail,” she said while leaving the courthouse Thursday.
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