The Securities and Exchange Commission said Friday that World Wrestling Entertainment co-founder Vince McMahon will pay more than $1.7 million in relation to charges that he failed to disclose payment agreements related to sexual assault charges.
The SEC said McMahon circumvented WWE internal accounting controls and caused material misstatements in the company’s 2018 and 2021 financial statements.
The SEC added that McMahon agreed to the settlement without admitting or denying its findings. He will pay a $400,000 civil penalty and reimburse WWE approximately $1,331,000.
“Company executives cannot enter into material agreements on behalf of the company they serve and withhold that information from the company’s control functions and auditor,” Thomas P. Smith Jr., Associate Regional Director in the New York Regional Office, said in a statement.
McMahon released the following statement Friday:
“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.”
The SEC alleges McMahon failed to disclose one $3 million payment paid to a former WWE employee, and another $7.5 million paid to a female independent contractor, in exchange for their not filing claims against him. As a result, the agency said, the WWE overstated its 2018 net income by approximately 8% and its 2021 net income by approximately 1.7%.
The Wall Street Journal reported in 2022 that McMahon had paid a total of $12 million over 16 years to suppress allegations of sexual misconduct and infidelity.
Last January, McMahon and the WWE were accused of sex trafficking and abuse by a former employee. A day later, McMahon stepped down as executive chairman of TKO, the WWE’s parent company, and relinquished all roles with WWE.
In May, U.S. Department of Justice prosecutors signaled they had opened a probe into the January allegations, which were filed by Janel Grant, a former paralegal who was offered employment with WWE in 2019 following the death of her parents. Last month, federal prosecutors indicated they would continue their criminal investigation while a civil case being brought by Grant went forward.
The settlement comes as Linda McMahon, Vince McMahon’s wife and former WWE CEO, prepares for Senate confirmation hearings to be education secretary in President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet.
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