Former WWE chairman Vince McMahon has been charged by the SEC for violating federal securities laws by failing to disclose settlement agreements totaling $10.5 million with two women.
These agreements, made on behalf of McMahon and WWE, were not reported to the company’s board, legal department, accountants, or auditors, causing material misstatements in WWE’s 2018 and 2021 financial statements.
The SEC stated McMahon’s actions “circumvented WWE’s system of internal accounting controls and caused material misstatements.” McMahon agreed to settle the charges by paying a $400,000 civil penalty and reimbursing WWE $1.33 million.
One settlement involved a $3 million payment to a former WWE employee in exchange for her silence about a relationship with McMahon. Another involved an independent contractor who alleged McMahon assaulted her in 2005 and derailed her career after she refused to engage in a $exual relationship.
The SEC noted that WWE overstated its net income for 2018 by 8% and for 2021 by 1.7% due to these unrecorded agreements. McMahon also violated the Sarbanes-Oxley Act by not fully reimbursing WWE for incentive-based compensation and profits tied to restated financial statements.
McMahon issued 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
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