Vince McMahon reaches settlement with SEC after violating Securities Exchange Act

After being found in violation of failing to disclose previous settlement agreements to the WWE Board, Vince McMahon has agreed to a settlement with the SEC.

McMahon will pay a $400,000 civil penalty and reimburse WWE $1.33 million after the SEC found he violated the Securities Exchange Act.

By not disclosing “the agreements to WWE’s Board of Directors, legal department, accountants, financial reporting personnel, or auditor. Doing so circumvented WWE’s system of internal accounting controls and caused material misstatements in WWE’s 2018 and 2021 financial statements,” the SEC stated in a Friday release.

McMahon was WWE’s executive chairman of the Board and CEO at the time of the agreements. WWE was merged with UFC in September 2023 to create TKO of which he was executive chairman until January 2024 after Janel Grant sued he, John Laurinaitis and WWE, accusing them of sexual trafficking and misconduct among other accusations. The lawsuit is still ongoing.

He released the following statement after the settlement went public in which he diminished the purpose of the investigation and its findings:

“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.”

The SEC specifically noted two undisclosed settlements McMahon had with two women totaling $10.5 million, one in 2019 and one in 2022. While not specifically named, one of those women is assumed to be Grant.

Grant’s attorney Ann Callis released the following statement to Post Wrestling:

“During his time leading WWE, Vince McMahon acted as if rules did not apply to him, and now we have confirmation that he repeatedly broke the law to cover up his horrifying behavior, including human trafficking. The SEC’s charges prove that the NDA Vince McMahon coerced Ms. Grant into signing violates the law, and therefore her case must be heard in court. While prosecutors for the Southern District of New York continue their criminal investigation, we look forward to bringing forward new evidence in our civil case about the sexual exploitation Ms. Grant endured at WWE by Vince McMahon and John Laurinaitis.”

From the SEC Friday:

“The order finds that, because McMahon failed to disclose the agreements to WWE, WWE did not evaluate the disclosure implications or the appropriate accounting for these transactions in its financial statements. The SEC’s order finds that, because the payments required by the 2019 and 2022 agreements were not recorded, WWE overstated its 2018 net income by approximately 8 percent and its 2021 net income by approximately 1.7 percent. In addition, according to the order, these payments should have been disclosed as related party transactions.

The order further finds that McMahon signed management representation letters that were provided to WWE’s auditor that did not disclose the existence of either settlement agreement. After learning of the settlement agreements, WWE issued a restatement of its financial statements in August 2022.

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

McMahon has reportedly been building up a new entertainment company with former WWE executives and hasn’t been in the spotlight or in the public eye for some time. According to TKO leadership, he has had nothing to do with WWE in any capacity since he stepped down last January.