Vince McMahon fined over $1.7 million for undisclosed hush money payments to women
Ex-WWE CEO Vince McMahon, who also resigned from his position at TKO Group Holdings in early 2024, has been fined over $1.7 million by the Securities and Exchange Commission from undisclosed hush money payments handed out to two women while he was with the company.
The SEC announced the news on Friday.
The fines bring to a close an investigation started by the government agency after McMahon faced a litany of allegations over a series of relationships with women at WWE. The two specific incidents revealed by the SEC date back to 2019 and 2022 after McMahon signed two settlement agreements on behalf of WWE without actually disclosing the agreements or payments to the company.
In one incident, McMahon agreed to pay $3 million in exchange for a former employee not to disclose her relationship with him or release potential claims against him or WWE. The second incident ended with McMahon agreeing to pay $7.5 million to a former WWE independent contractor so she would not disclose her allegations against the now former CEO or the company.
Because McMahon didn’t inform the company about the hush money payments made to those women, WWE “overstated” its net income in 2018 and 2021.
“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,” Thomas P. Smith Jr., Associate Regional Director in the New York Regional Office, said in a statement.
As a result of McMahon’s misdeeds, he was ordered to pay a $400,000 fine as a civil penalty along with another payment of $1,330,915.90 to reimburse WWE under terms of his settlement agreement.
The fines handed down by the SEC are the latest in a long line of controversies surrounding McMahon, which played a part in him stepping down from his position at WWE and TKO after the professional wrestling outfit was merged with the UFC in 2023.
When the merger was first announced, TKO CEO Ari Emanuel praised McMahon as a business partner after naming him executive chairman in the combined company.
Just four months after the merger was completed, McMahon resigned from his position at TKO following an explosive lawsuit filed against him by a former employee with damning accusations including sexual abuse and trafficking. While McMahon denied the claims made in the lawsuit, he still ultimately stepped down from his role at TKO.
In the months following his resignation, McMahon began selling off large swaths of his stock in TKO as the company continued to distance itself from him.
Now this latest episode ends with McMahon paying a fine and reimbursing WWE for the hush money payments never disclosed while he was still working at the company.