Vince McMahon Settles With SEC for $1.7 Million Over Undisclosed Hush Money Payments

Posted By: Ben Jordan Kerin on Jan 10, 2025

Vince McMahon has reached a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding charges related to his failure to disclose WWE’s settlement agreements with two women, totaling $10.5 million.

The announcement, made on Friday, detailed the terms of the settlement. McMahon will pay a $400,000 civil penalty and reimburse WWE $1.33 million. The SEC alleged that McMahon bypassed WWE’s internal accounting controls, leading to material misstatements in the company’s financial statements for 2018 and 2021. These errors resulted in WWE overstating its 2018 net income by approximately 8% and its 2021 net income by approximately 1.7%.

The SEC's investigation focused on undisclosed payments, including $3 million to a former WWE employee and $7.5 million to a female independent contractor, allegedly made to prevent the filing of claims against McMahon. McMahon agreed to the settlement without admitting or denying the findings.

Previously, The Wall Street Journal reported that McMahon had paid a total of $12 million over 16 years to suppress allegations of sexual misconduct and infidelity. Following the settlement, McMahon released a 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.”

In the wake of these developments, McMahon resigned from all his roles within TKO Group Holdings, including as executive chairman and member of the TKO Board of Directors. This resignation followed a lawsuit filed by Janel Grant against McMahon, WWE, and John Laurinaitis, which included severe allegations from a former WWE employee. McMahon has denied the claims made by Grant.