McMahon Settles With SEC Over Hush Money Payments

The Securities and Exchange Commission has settled charges against former WWE CEO Vince McMahon over his failure to disclose to the sports entertainment company's board and others that he signed two settlement agreements worth $10.5 million with two women so they wouldn't reveal potential claims against himself and the WWE. McMahon resigned from WWE's parent company, TKO Group Holdings, in January 2024 after an ex-employee filed a federal lawsuit accusing him and another former executive of serious sexual misconduct. He continued to deny wrongdoing following the filing of the lawsuit. McMahon had previously stepped down as WWE's CEO in 2022 amid an investigation into allegations that match those in the suit.

The SEC said on Friday that one agreement was signed in 2019 and the other in 2022, per the AP. One agreement required McMahon to pay a former employee $3 million in exchange for her agreement to not disclose her relationship with McMahon, and her release of potential claims against him and the WWE. The other agreement obligated McMahon to pay a former WWE independent contractor $7.5 million in exchange for the same, the SEC said. The commission said that by McMahon not disclosing the agreements, it circumvented the WWE's system of internal accounting controls and caused material misstatements in the company's 2018 and 2021 financial statements.

The SEC said that McMahon, without admitting or denying its findings, agreed to cease and desist from violating certain provisions, pay a $400,000 civil penalty, and reimburse the WWE approximately $1.3 million. "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," McMahon said in a statement. "I'm thrilled that I can now put all this behind me." Ann Callis, a lawyer for Janel Grant—an ex-WWE employee who filed a lawsuit against the company and McMahon, accusing him of sexual battery and trafficking—said in a statement that the SEC's charges are confirmation that McMahon broke the law to cover up his behavior.

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