On Friday, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) fined former WWE CEO Vince McMahon $400,000 for executing undisclosed agreements on WWE’s behalf. McMahon also agreed to reimburse WWE $1.3 million.
The agreements were signed in 2019 and 2022, causing WWE to submit its financial statements to the SEC improperly. In 2019, McMahon agreed to pay an independent contractor $7.5 million to not disclose her allegations against him or the company. The 2022 agreement was for $3 million in exchange for Janel Grant not disclosing her relationship with him.
Vince McMahon issued the following 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.”
— Vince McMahon (@VinceMcMahon) January 10, 2025