Vince McMahon SEC Settlement: Details and Updates
Vince McMahon, former WWE Chairman, recently reached a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The charges against McMahon involved his failure to inform the WWE board of directors about $10.5 million spent on nondisclosure agreements with two women. The SEC press release detailed that McMahon signed these agreements in 2019 and 2022 without disclosing them to key stakeholders within WWE, leading to inaccuracies in the company’s financial statements for 2018 and 2021.
Specifically, the SEC found that McMahon had agreed to pay a former employee $3 million and a former independent contractor $7.5 million in exchange for their agreement not to disclose certain information. McMahon’s actions led to WWE overstating its net income in 2018 and 2021. Additionally, the SEC highlighted that McMahon failed to disclose these agreements to WWE’s auditor as required. Following the discovery of these settlements, WWE corrected its financial statements in August 2022.
As part of the settlement, McMahon admitted to violating the Securities Exchange Act by bypassing WWE’s internal accounting controls and making false statements to the auditor. He agreed to pay a civil penalty of $400,000 and reimburse WWE over $1.3 million in accordance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. While McMahon has resolved his issues with the SEC, he still faces a civil lawsuit from Janel Grant, as the Justice Department has lifted its stay on that case.
