WWE founder Vince McMahon has said he is “thrilled” that he can put behind him allegations that he failed to declare payments to two women after reaching a settlement with a US federal body.
The 79-year-old resigned from WWE’s parent company TKO Group Holdings amid sex trafficking allegations in January last year.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said on Friday that it has settled with the former boss of the wrestling company.
— Vince McMahon (@VinceMcMahon) January 10, 2025
The body said he failed to disclose to the company’s board and other departments two settlements made in 2019 and in 2022, totalling 10.5 million US dollars (£8.5 million), to two women. It alleged that the payments were made so they would not reveal potential claims against McMahon and WWE.
On X, McMahon wrote: “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.”
According to the SEC, he agreed with the body’s order that he “violated the Securities Exchange Act by knowingly circumventing WWE’s internal accounting controls and that he directly or indirectly made or caused to be made false or misleading statements to WWE’s auditor”.
He was ordered to pay a 400,000 US dollar (£327,518) civil penalty and reimburse WWE to the tune of around 1.3 million US dollars (£1.08 million).
The SEC claimed a former employee was given three million US dollars (£2.46 million) “to not disclose her relationship with McMahon and her release of potential claims against WWE and McMahon”.
— Vince McMahon (@VinceMcMahon) September 23, 2024
It claimed the second agreement was to “pay a former WWE independent contractor 7.5 million US dollars (£6.14 million) in exchange for the independent contractor’s agreement to not disclose her allegations against McMahon and her release of potential claims against WWE and McMahon”.
The commission said that by not disclosing the agreements to the board and other parts of the wrestling body, McMahon “circumvented WWE’s system of internal accounting controls and caused material misstatements in WWE’s 2018 and 2021 financial statements”.
The SEC said this meant the WWE overstated its 2018 net income by “approximately 8% and its 2021 net income by approximately 1.7%”.
WWE issued a restatement of its financial statements in August 2022 after the payments were disclosed.
Thomas P Smith Jr, associate regional director in the SEC’s New York Regional Office, said: “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.”
In 2022, McMahon stepped down as WWE’s chief executive amid an investigation into alleged misconduct.
He returned to TKO for a brief spell before also resigning from that role.
Last year, a former WWE employee filed a lawsuit against McMahon, alleging trafficking civil battery and infliction of emotional distress, which he has strenuously denied.
The documentary followed McMahon’s successes and scandals including allegations of wrestlers using steroids and a sex abuse lawsuit and featured an interview with McMahon himself.
However, after the allegations emerged, he no longer appeared in the film.
When it was released in September, McMahon said he did not regret taking part but accused the producers of distorting “the viewers’ perception” to “support a deceptive narrative”.
McMahon was the leader and most recognisable face at WWE for decades and when he purchased what was then the World Wrestling Federation from his father in 1982, wrestling matches took place at smaller venues and appeared on local TV channels.
He co-founded WWE in 1980 along with his wife, Linda.
Mrs McMahon is President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to become the next US secretary of education.
Their daughter Stephanie and son Shane were both wrestlers in WWE, and Stephanie’s husband Paul Michael Levesque, known by his ring name Triple H, is currently WWE’s chief content officer.
