Vince McMahon just reached a deal with the feds in his hush money case … with the former WWE honcho agreeing to fork over $1.7 million to put the matter in his rearview mirror.
The Securities and Exchange Commission said Friday it found McMahon paid a former employee $3 million in 2019 and an ex-independent contractor $7.5 million in 2022 to buy their silence when it came to allegations against him and his company, the WWE.
The SEC, though, says McMahon never properly disclosed the agreements to the WWE’s Board of Directors and other officials at the wrestling org. — a big no-no that resulted in violations.
“Company executives cannot enter into material agreements on behalf of the company they serve and withhold that information from the company’s control functions and auditor,” New York Regional Office exec Thomas P. Smith Jr. said.
In order to make things right, the SEC says McMahon agreed to pay a $400,000 fine … as well as reimburse the WWE $1,330,915.90.
It should be noted the feds said McMahon did not admit or deny their findings.
McMahon said in a statement on X on Friday morning he was “thrilled” with the resolution.
“The case is closed,” he wrote. “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 Wall Street Journal first reported McMahon was under investigation over alleged hush money payments back in 2022 … and the fallout from it all resulted in the 79-year-old stepping down from his role in the WWE.
He later returned … but following an explosive sexual assault lawsuit that was filed by a former WWE staffer, he resigned as the Executive Chairman of TKO, the company that owns WWE.
