Vince McMahon Former head of WWEHe will pay $1.7 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission for failing to disclose two settlements he had with employees while running the former public company.
A settlement agreement signed in 2019 forced McMahon to pay a former employee $3 million in exchange for the former employee not disclosing his relationship with McMahon and releasing potential claims against WWE and McMahon, and a second agreement, signed in 2021. , McMahon was forced to pay a former WWE independent contractor $7.5 million in exchange for the independent contractor’s agreement not to disclose allegations against him. McMahon and the release of potential claims against WWE and McMahon, according to the SEC.
In this Aug. 24, 2009, file photo, Vince McMahon of World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. The president appears in the ring during the WWE Monday Night Raw show in Las Vegas.
Ethan Miller/Getty Images, FILE
Those payments were not disclosed and therefore “overestimated WWE’s 2018 net income by approximately 8 percent and 2021 net income by approximately 1.7 percent,” according to the SEC.
McMahon agreed to pay a $400,000 civil penalty and repay WWE $1,330,915.90, the SEC said.
In this Aug. 25, 2021, file photo, a World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) logo is seen on a phone and computer screen.
SOPA Images via LightRocket via Getty Images, FILE
In a statement published by X, McMahon said “the case is now closed.”
“Today concludes a nearly three-year investigation by various government agencies,” he said.
“There has been a lot of speculation about exactly what the government was investigating and what the outcome would be. As today’s ruling shows, much of that speculation was wrong and misleading,” he added. “In the end, it was nothing more than minor accounting mistakes regarding some personal payments I made several years ago when I was WWE CEO. I’m happy to put all of that behind me now.”
McMahon, who is married to President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for education secretary, Linda McMahonHe resigned from WWE’s parent company TKO Group Holdings in 2024 after a former employee accused him of sexual misconduct. McMahon has denied any wrongdoing in that case.
