By Denny Jacob


The Securities and Exchange Commission has settled charges against Vince McMahon, former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, over actions he took that circumvented the company's internal accounting controls and produced erroneous financial statements.

The regulator said McMahon consented to its order that he violated federal law 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 the company's auditor.

Without admitting or denying the SEC's findings, McMahon agreed to cease-and-desist from violating those provisions, paying a $400,000 civil penalty and reimburse WWE around $1.3 million.

"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," McMahon said Friday.

The SEC's charges revolved around two settlement agreements involving McMahon. One obligated him to pay a former employee $3 million in exchange for the former employee's agreement to not disclose her relationship with McMahon and her release of potential claims against WWE and McMahon. The second obligated McMahon to pay a former WWE independent contractor $7.5 million for her agreement to not disclose her allegations against McMahon and her release of potential claims against WWE and McMahon.

The SEC said its order found that because the payments were not recorded, WWE overstated its net income in 2018 and 2021 by 8% and 1.7%, respectively. It added that the payments should have been disclosed as related party transactions.

McMahon briefly retired from WWE in July 2022 following reporting by The Wall Street Journal that revealed payouts to multiple women who had alleged sexual misconduct.

McMahon, who was the controlling shareholder of WWE, returned to WWE in early 2023 and negotiated a sale of WWE to Endeavor Group, owner of the UFC. He later resigned from the merged company, TKO Group.


Write to Denny Jacob at denny.jacob@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

01-10-25 1015ET