Vince McMahon, a co-founder of World Wrestling Entertainment, will pay over $1.7 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday for allegedly failing to disclose payment arrangements linked to sexual assault claims.
According to the SEC, McMahon made substantial misstatements in the financial statements of WWE for 2018 and 2021 and evaded internal accounting controls.
The SEC further stated that McMahon accepted the settlement without acknowledging or refuting its conclusions. He will reimburse WWE almost $1,331,000 and pay a $400,000 civil penalty.
Executives of the company are not allowed to sign significant contracts on the firm’s behalf and keep that information secret from the auditor and control functions. In a statement, the New York Regional Office’s Associate Regional Director, Thomas P. Smith Jr.
Requests for response were not immediately answered by McMahon’s or the WWE’s representatives.
According to the SEC, McMahon concealed two payments totaling $7.5 million and $3 million to a female independent contractor and a former WWE employee in exchange for their failure to bring legal action against him. The agency claimed that as a result, the WWE inflated its net income for 2018 by almost 8% and for 2021 by about 1.7%.
In 2022, the Wall Street Journal revealed that McMahon had spent $12 million over 16 years to bury accusations of infidelity and sexual misconduct.
A former employee accused McMahon and the WWE of sex trafficking and abuse last January. A day later, McMahon resigned from all positions with WWE and stepped down as executive chairman of TKO, the parent company of the WWE.