CNN
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Federal prosecutors have concluded a criminal investigation into whether former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO and chairman Vince McMahon attempted to conceal allegations of sexual misconduct with several former employees, his lawyer said. He said Tuesday.
“We have been in consistent communication with the government…and, although there is no ambiguity, we understand that the investigation is clearly concluded and does not result in accusations,” McMahon’s lawyer Robert W. – Allen said in a statement.
The New York Post first reported the news on Wednesday.
The obvious end of the investigation took place in a week after the Great Ju Court and the Federal Court of Appeals investigated whether WWE founder McMahon committed a crime by hiding allegations of sexual misconduct from two former female employees. It will take place within a while. Private contract.
McMahon and his former lawyers said, “For the explicit purpose of the company gaining knowledge, they were executed via contracts executed via text instead of emails,” according to a court ruling last Friday. It is said that they concealed allegations and payments from the company, including sharing the agreement.
Neither McMahon nor his lawyer were explicitly named in the ruling, but the explanation coincided with him, and sources confirmed with CNN that McMahon was indeed the CEO of the matter.
Despite new court documents, Allen said the issue is currently closed and the new submission is “the result of an appeal of a procedural issue discussed five months ago.”
In 2022, the Wall Street Journal reported that McMahon had paid more than $12 million to four women previously employed by WWE for 16 years to silence allegations of sexual misconduct. This included a former WWE wrestler who claimed McMahon forced her to perform oral sex, but that said she would not renew her contract after she refused to make further sexual advances. I chose it.
The news article followed another journal report that WWE’s board of directors had been looking for McMahon because they quietly agreed to quietly paying former staff a $3 million settlement. At the time, McMahon vowed to cooperate with the investigation and “accepting the results and results of the investigation.”
In January 2023, the Journal reported that McMahon had carved a multi-million dollar settlement with the first woman to judge the World Wrestling Federation, which became WWE in 2002. McMahon’s lawyers claimed that he “denies and constantly denies” sexual assault, and designated that the lawsuit was “settled just to avoid the costs of the lawsuit.”
Another former WWE employee who worked at the company’s headquarters sued McMahon in January 2024, accusing him of sexual assault, human trafficking and physical abuse. A McMahon spokesman at the time described the lawsuit as “a lewd, lewd, crafted case that never occurred, and a vindictive distortion of the truth.”
The former staff member in the January 2024 case was not named in the new ruling, but the second victim’s agreement description matches the report on her account.
McMahon resigned from his dual WWE role in 2022 and returned as executive director of the board in January 2023. That September, the company became TKO after WWE merged with rival network UFC. In January 2024, he quickly resigned from the role of executive chairman and chairman of the board of directors at TKO following allegations of sexual misconduct that McMahon denied.
In June 2024, a federal judge said the government “believes McMahon and one of his former lawyers “break the law when they “averted internal control (of the company) and created fake books and records.” It ruled that a possible cause has been established. A new filing by the Court of Appeals on Tuesday upheld a lower court’s ruling.
In October, McMahon and his wife Linda – President Trump chose to become education secretary – said that former ringside announcer would use his position to sexually exploit a 12-year-old child from the 1980s. Five former WWE “Ring Boys” allegedly allowed them to be sued. Vince and Linda McMahon denied the allegations.
In separate legal matters, last month, McMahon was charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with allegedly failing to properly disclose $19.6 million at unrecorded expenses to the company’s board of directors. I paid $1.7 million to resolve the issue.
McMahon has promoted the SEC settlement as a provenance of his maintained innocence after years of allegations and reports.
“When I was CEO of WWE, there was nothing more than a minor accounting error regarding the personal payments I made a few years ago,” McMahon said in January. I mentioned it in. “I’m excited to be able to put all of this behind me.”
WWE and TKO did not respond to requests for comment.
