Vince McMahon has resolved SEC charges relating to undisclosed settlements.
CNBC first reported the news of McMahon resolving the charges. The SEC says McMahon agreed to pay a $400,000 civil penalty and reimburse the WWE $1.33 million after consenting to an order finding that he violated the Securities Exchange Act.
The SEC filed charges related to McMahon's failure to disclose to WWE's board settlement agreements totaling $10.5 million with two women on behalf of himself and the WWE.
McMahon put out the following statement:
“The case is closed. Today ends nearly three years of investigation by different governmental agencies. There has been a great deal of speculation about what exactly the government was investigating and what the outcome would be. As today’s resolution shows, much of that speculation was misguided and misleading.
"In the end, there was never anything more to this than minor accounting errors with regard to some personal payments that I made several years ago while I was CEO of WWE. I’m thrilled that I can now put all this behind me.”
— Vince McMahon (@VinceMcMahon) January 10, 2025
The SEC said that McMahon’s failure to inform the WWE’s board, legal department, accountants or auditor of the settlements “circumvented WWE’s system of internal accounting controls and caused material misstatements in WWE’s 2018 and 2021 financial statements.”
One of the settlement agreements obligated McMahon to pay $3 million to a former WWE employee in exchange for her silence about a relationship with him.
Former WWE employee Janel Gran filed a federal lawsuit against McMahon in January 2024, accusing him of sexual assault and trafficking, and alleging that he had agreed to pay her $3 million as part of a nondisclosure agreement. Grant claims McMahon only ended up paying her $1 million.
Grant's lawsuit is still active.
