Before Janel Grant’s lawsuit led to his resignation from WWE and TKO last January, a related investigation resulted in Vince McMahon temporarily “retiring” from WWE – and found himself in the crosshairs of the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission.

McMahon’s failure to report his hush money payments to Grant and other women who had signed nondisclosure agreements with McMahon resulted in WWE filing inaccurate financial reports. The company adjusted previous reports to more accurately reflect the transactions of its then-CEO and chairman, but the SEC still accused McMahon of violating federal securities laws.

The agency announced these allegations, along with the settlement agreement reached with McMahon, in a press release today (January 10).

Former WWE CEO Vince McMahon has been sued for failing to disclose to WWE two settlement agreements he entered into on behalf of WWE

Washington DC, January 10, 2025 –

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced today that it has settled charges against Vince McMahon, former chairman and CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment Inc., for entering into two settlement agreements, one in 2019 and one in 2022, on his own behalf and signed on behalf of WWE without disclosing the agreements to WWE’s board of directors, legal department, accountant, financial reporter or auditor. This circumvented WWE’s system of internal accounting controls and resulted in material misstatements in WWE’s 2018 and 2021 financial statements.

According to the SEC’s order, one settlement agreement required McMahon to pay $3 million to a former employee in exchange for the former employee’s agreement not to disclose her relationship with McMahon and to release potential claims against WWE and McMahon, and the second agreement obliged McMahon agreed to pay a former WWE independent contractor $7.5 million in exchange for the independent contractor’s agreement not to disclose her allegations against McMahon and potential claims against WWE and McMahon to be released. The order notes that WWE failed to assess the disclosure implications or appropriate accounting of these transactions in its financial reports because McMahon failed to disclose the agreements to WWE. The SEC’s order states that WWE overstated its 2018 net income by approximately 8 percent and its 2021 net income by approximately 1.7 percent by failing to record payments required in the 2019 and 2022 agreements. In addition, according to the order, these payments should have been reported as related party transactions.

The order also notes that McMahon signed management statements submitted to the WWE auditor that did not disclose the existence of either settlement agreement. After learning of the settlement agreements, WWE released a restated financial statement in August 2022.

“Company executives must not enter into material agreements on behalf of the company they serve and withhold this information from the company’s control functions and auditor,” said Thomas P. Smith Jr., deputy regional director in the New York regional office.

McMahon agreed to enter the SEC’s order that he violated the Securities Exchange Act by knowingly circumventing WWE’s internal accounting controls and that he directly or indirectly made or failed to provide false or misleading statements to WWE’s auditor caused. The order also finds that McMahon caused WWE’s violations of the reporting and accounting provisions of the Exchange Act. Without admitting or denying the SEC’s findings, McMahon agreed to cease and desist from violating these provisions, to pay a civil penalty of $400,000, and to pay WWE $1,330,915.90 pursuant to Section 304(a) of Sarbanes -Oxley Act to reimburse.

The SEC’s investigation was conducted by Peter Pizzani, Mala Bartucci, Kenneth Gottlieb, Diego Brucculeri, Travis Hill, Liora Sukhatme and Alison Conn and was supervised by Mr. Smith and all New York Regional Office staff and assisted by Chyhe K. Becker and Tyler Remick from the Department of Economic and Risk Analysis.

McMahon released his own statement, giving the impression that this was the only federal investigation focused on him and his actions. If true, it would mean the government is no longer investigating the sex trafficking allegations made in Grant’s lawsuit against McMahon, John Laurinaitis and WWE.

“The case is closed. Today marks the end of nearly three years of investigations by various government agencies. There was much speculation about what exactly the government was investigating and what the outcome would be. As today’s resolution shows, much of this speculation was misguided and misleading.

“Ultimately, there were never more than minor accounting errors regarding some personal payments I made as CEO of WWE several years ago. I’m thrilled that I can now put all this behind me.”

Post Wrestling & Wrestlenomics’ Brandon Thurston writes that he has reached out to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York – which requested the now-terminated pause in the Grant case so it can complete its investigation into McMahon, and is working in the federal courthouse, which hears most financial crimes since it covers Manhattan and Wall Street – for comment. At this time he has not received a response.

McMahon’s relationship with President-elect Donald Trump had led to speculation that the results of Trump’s re-election in November would be favorable to McMahon in dealing with federal investigators.

Thurston has also reached out to Grant’s legal team for comment on today’s news. We will update this post or report separately on any responses it receives.