The Securities and Exchange Commission says former WWE CEO Vince McMahon entered into two settlement agreements worth $10.5 million with two women to not disclose potential claims against directors of the sports entertainment company. It was announced that the charges for not disclosing the information to the organization and others have been settled. To myself and WWE.
Without admitting or denying its findings, the SEC announced that McMahon had agreed to enjoin violations of certain provisions, pay a $400,000 civil penalty, and compensate WWE approximately $1.3 million. .
“Today marks the end of an almost three-year investigation by various government agencies. There has been much speculation about what exactly the government will investigate and what its findings will be. As today’s resolution shows, Much of the speculation was misplaced and misleading,” McMahon said in a statement. “At the end of the day, there was nothing more than a minor accounting error regarding some personal payments I made several years ago when I was the CEO of WWE. Now all of this… I’m excited to be able to forget.”
Manhattan federal prosecutors declined to comment.
McMahon resigned from WWE’s parent company in January 2024 after a former employee filed a federal lawsuit accusing him and another former executive of gross sexual misconduct. At the time, McMahon had stepped down as chairman of the board of WWE’s parent company, TKO Group Holdings. He continued to deny wrongdoing even after the lawsuit was filed.
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McMahon resigned as WWE CEO in 2022 amid an investigation into allegations consistent with the lawsuit.
The SEC announced Friday that one agreement was signed in 2019 and the other in 2022. One agreement required McMahon to pay the former employee $3 million in exchange for the former employee’s agreement not to disclose his relationship with McMahon and his potential claims against WWE. And McMahon.
Another agreement provides McMahon with $7.5 million to former WWE independent contractors in exchange for their agreement not to disclose claims against McMahon and release from potential claims against WWE and McMahon. The SEC announced that the company was obligated to pay .
Anne Callis, the attorney for Janelle Grant, a former WWE employee who filed a lawsuit against the company and McMahon over sexual assault and human trafficking allegations, said in a statement that the SEC’s charges are a sign that McMahon was breaking the law in an attempt to cover up the incident. He said this was proof that he had committed a crime. Close up of his actions.
“The SEC’s complaint proves that Vince McMahon’s coercing Ms. Grant to sign the NDA violated the law. Therefore, her case must be heard in court.” said Karis. “While prosecutors in the Southern District of New York continue their criminal investigation, we look forward to new evidence being presented in the civil case.”
The Associated Press typically does not publish the names of people with sexual assault allegations unless they come forward publicly, but Grant did so.
Mr. McMahon denied Mr. Grant’s claims.
The commission found that McMahon circumvented the company’s internal accounting control system by failing to disclose the terms of the contract to WWE’s board of directors, legal department, accountants, financial reporting personnel, and auditors, and that the company’s internal accounting controls were not disclosed in 2018 and 2021. said that it caused a material misstatement of the company’s financial statements.
The SEC’s order found that WWE overstated its 2018 net income by approximately 8% and its 2021 net income by approximately 1.7% because payments required by its 2019 and 2022 contracts were not recorded. Ta.
Upon learning of the settlement agreement, WWE issued a restatement of its financial statements in August 2022.
“Corporate executives enter into important contracts on behalf of the companies they serve and share that information with corporate management functions and It cannot be withheld from the auditor.”
McMahon has been the leader and most recognizable face of WWE for decades. When he bought the then World Wrestling Federation from his father in 1982, wrestling matches were held in small venues and broadcast on local cable channels. WWE matches are now held at professional sports stadiums, and the company’s weekly live TV show “Raw” premiered on Netflix on Monday and was watched 4.9 million times worldwide, with an average in the U.S., according to Video Amplifier. It was watched by 2.6 million households.
