After being convicted of not revealing conciliatory agreements prior to the WWE Board of Directors, Vince McMahon accepted an agreement with the SEC.
McMahon will pay a civil fine of $ 400,000 and will reimburse the WWE 1.33 million dollars after the SEC discovered that it violated the securities exchange law.
Not revealing “the agreements to the WWE Board of Directors, to the Legal Department, to the accountants, to the staff of Financial Reports or the Auditor, in doing so the system of internal accounting controls of the WWE was eluded and material errors were caused in the financial statements of the WWE of 2018 and 2021,” said the SEC in a Friday statement.
McMahon was the executive president of the Board of Directors and WWE Executive Director at the time of the agreements. The WWE merged with the UFC in September 2023 to create TKO, of which he was executive president until January 2024 after Janel Grant demanded him, John laurinaitis and WWE, accusing them of sexual trafficking and misconduct, among other accusations. The demand is still ongoing.
After the agreement made public, he issued the following statement in which he minimized the purpose of the investigation and its findings:
“The case is closed. Today they conclude almost three years of investigation by different government agencies. There has been much speculation about what exactly investigating the government and what would be the result. As demonstrated by today's resolution, much of that speculation was wrong and deceptive.
“In the end, there was nothing more than small accounting errors in relation to some personal payments that I made several years ago while I was WWE executive director. I am delighted to be able to leave all this behind.”
The SEC specifically indicated two unleashed agreements that McMahon had with two women for a total of $ 10.5 million, one in 2019 and another in 2022. Although it was not specifically appointed, one of those women is supposed to be Grant.
The order also determines that McMahon signed letters of representation of the management that were delivered to the WWE auditor and that did not reveal the existence of any of the conciliation agreements. After knowing the conciliation agreements, the WWE issued a reformulation of its financial statements in August 2022.
As reported, McMahon has been building a new entertainment company with former WWE executives and has not been at the center of attention or under the public eye for some time. According to Tko's address, it has had nothing to do with WWE in any way since it resigned last January.
