Vince McMahon settled his case with the Securities and Exchange Commission today, after he was accused of non-disclosure to the WWE Board of Directors of two settlement agreements with former employees in both 2018 and 2021 that were discovered after a civil lawsuit by Janel Grant was filed against him. The settlement includes a penalty payment of over $1.7 million to McMahon, as well as a $400,000 civil penalty, and a reimbursement charge to WWE of $1,331,000.
Mr. McMahon has been embroiled in a high-profile civil lawsuit brought by Ms. Grant, a former WWE employee who accused him of multiple instances of sexual impropriety, and a combination of the lawsuit, as well as the involvement of both the SEC and the Department of Justice, led to Mr. McMahon’s resignation from the TKO Board in January 2024. While the case clears up his issues with the SEC, Mr. McMahon still awaits the outcomes of both the DOJ investigation and the civil lawsuit.
The Penalties Were a Result Of Unreported Payments by McMahon
The SEC Took Interest After an Explosive Wall Street Journal Report
Mr. McMahon, the former CEO and Chairman of WWE and former Executive Chairman of TKO Group Holdings, has been accused of sexual misconduct and sex trafficking alongside former WWE Head of Talent Relations John Laurinaitis in a graphic lawsuit filed on January 25th. As a result of the lawsuit, the Department of Justice opened a criminal investigation into Ms. Grant’s allegations of sex trafficking, and the SEC alleged that he failed to disclose two payments to a former employee and former independent contractor, totaling $10.5 million, that were included in non-disclosure agreements, after an explosive report from the Wall Street Journal that detailed over $12 million in hush money payments over 16 years.
The SEC claimed that because Mr. McMahon failed to disclose these agreements to the board of directors of WWE, the company could not properly account for these paid amounts in their financial disclosures, causing WWE to overstate its net income in 2018 and 2021 filings. While he did not admit to or deny any of the SEC findings, Mr. McMahon consented to the SEC’s order showing that he violated the Securities Exchange Act by not properly reporting the payments to the WWE board and its accountants and agreed to the proposed fines, as well as providing a statement through counsel.
“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 (via counsel)
McMahon Is Not Out of Hot Water Yet
DOJ Investigations and Civil Lawsuits Still Loom
In a separate statement provided to Screen Rant, Ann Callis, Janel Grant’s attorney, commented on today’s SEC settlement:
“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 behavior, 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.” – Ann Callis
While the SEC investigation is now completed, Mr. McMahon is still the subject of both a DOJ investigation and the civil lawsuit from Ms. Grant, for which attorneys for both Mr. McMahon and WWE have filed motions to move the case to arbitration. Mr. McMahon and Mr. Laurinaitis, through counsel, have denied Ms. Grant’s allegations, and the motions for arbitration, filed on December 23rd, have not yet been granted or denied.
