Vince McMahon, SEC reach $1.7M settlement over hush money payments
World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) co-founder Vince McMahon reached a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday for failing to disclose two payments made on behalf of himself and the company.
The former WWE CEO was accused of paying hush money to two individuals in 2019 and 2022 to prevent them from bringing formal claims against him in court.
According to the SEC’s order, one settlement agreement obligated McMahon to pay a former employee $3 million in exchange for her silence about ongoing relations with McMahon, and the second agreement obligated McMahon to pay a former WWE independent contractor $7.5 million in exchange for the independent contractor’s agreement to not disclose her allegations against McMahon and her release of potential claims against WWE.
Due to the two payments, WWE overstated its 2018 net income by approximately 8 percent and its 2021 net income by about 1.7 percent.
“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,” Thomas P. Smith Jr., Associate Regional Director in the New York Regional Office, said in a statement.
In its release, the SEC said McMahon did not admit or deny guilt but agreed to pay a $400,000 civil penalty and reimburse WWE $1,330,915.90.
“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,” McMahon said in a statement posted to the social platform X.
WWE and McMahon did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment.
McMahon’s wife, Linda, was recently named in a lawsuit alleging the company allowed a ringside announcer to sexually abuse young boys for years. They’ve both denied those claims.
Linda is currently leading President-elect Trump’s transition team and has been nominated to head the Department of Education during his second term.