The former director of Mississippi’s welfare agency was arrested on charges that he took part in a scheme to embezzle millions of dollars for personal use and to pay for a former professional wrestler to go to a luxury drug rehabilitation center, the state auditor announced on Wednesday.

The director, John Davis, who retired in 2019 from the Department of Human Services, was one of six people charged in what the state auditor, Shad White, said was the largest embezzlement scheme that the office had seen in at least 20 years.

All six people charged are Mississippi residents, including the former W.W.E. wrestler Brett DiBiase, 31, who state auditors said was paid with welfare funds for teaching classes about drug use. Mr. DiBiase never gave those classes, auditors said, because he was being treated for an opioid addiction at the Rise in Malibu rehab center in California.

Mr. White said the arrests stemmed from an eight-month investigation into the misappropriation of funds from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, which the state welfare agency administers.