SEC charges former WWE boss Vince McMahon over undisclosed settlements

The Securities and Exchange Commission charged former WWE boss Vince McMahon with failing to tell his professional wrestling firm’s board of settlement agreements totaling $10.5 million with two girls on behalf of himself and the WWE, the SEC mentioned Friday.

McMahon has agreed to settle the executive fees and agreed to pay a $400,000 civil penalty and reimburse the WWE $1.33 million after consenting to an order discovering that he violated the Securities Trade Act, the SEC mentioned.

The SEC mentioned that McMahon’s failure to tell the WWE’s board, authorized division, accountants or auditor of the settlements “circumvented WWE’s system of inside accounting controls and brought on materials misstatements in WWE’s 2018 and 2021 monetary statements.”

One of many settlement agreements obligated McMahon to pay $3 million to a former WWE worker in change for her silence a few relationship with him and her releasing potential authorized claims in opposition to McMahon and the corporate.

That girl was not named. However former WWE worker Janel Grant final 12 months filed a federal lawsuit in opposition to McMahon, accusing him of sexual assault and trafficking, and alleging that he had agreed to pay her $3 million as a part of a nondisclosure settlement. Grant says McMahon solely ended up paying her $1 million.

The opposite deal required McMahon to pay a former unbiased contractor for WWE who alleged that “McMahon assaulted her and derailed her profession after she refused to interact in a sexual relationship with him,” in accordance with the SEC order.

The SEC mentioned that as a result of the agreements with the ladies weren’t recorded, WWE overstated its web revenue for 2018 by about 8% and its 2021 web revenue by about 1.7%.

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