Former WWE Chairman Vince McMahon, who is facing a slew of allegations including sexual assault charges, has reached an agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over his failure to disclose hush-money payments. The SEC said the WWE co-founder will pay more than $1.7 million over the failed disclosure of paying two women $10.5 million to prevent them from going public against McMahon and his company.
An SEC investigation had found that McMahon circumvented WWE¡¯s internal accounting controls by failing to disclose these agreements to WWE¡¯s board, legal department, accountants, financial reporting personnel, or auditor.
This resulted in WWE overstating its net income in both 2018 and 2021 by approximately 8% and 1.7%, respectively.
According to the SEC, McMahon has agreed to pay a $400,000 civil penalty and reimburse WWE approximately $1.3 million as part of the settlement.
It was found that McMahon entered into two settlement agreements: in 2019 for $3 million with a former employee and in 2022 for $7.5 million with a former WWE independent contractor, to cover up potential sexual assault allegations against him.
McMahon released a statement calling the undisclosed hush-money payments an accounting error.
¡°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,¡± he said.
This is not the only sexual assault and trafficking charge McMahon has faced, which eventually led to his departure from WWE.
The lawyer of former WWE employee Janel Grant, who has accused McMahon of sexual assault, stated that the criminal investigation into him continues.
"During his time leading WWE, Vince McMahon acted as if rules did not apply to him, and now we have confirmation that he repeatedly broke the law to cover up his horrifying behaviour, including human trafficking. The SEC's charges prove that the NDA Vince McMahon coerced Ms. Grant into signing violates the law, and therefore her case must be heard in court. While prosecutors for the Southern District of New York continue their criminal investigation, we look forward to bringing forward new evidence in our civil case about the sexual exploitation Ms. Grant endured at WWE by Vince McMahon and John Laurinaitis," the lawyer said.
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