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Vince McMahon says “the case is closed” as he will be paying more than $1.7 million over hush money agreements

Aaron Rift

Former WWE owner Vince McMahon announced his “retirement” in 2022 after claims were made that he agreed to pay millions of dollars in hush money to women over a 16-year period. Vince was still involved with the company but then resigned in January of 2024 after Janel Grant, a former WWE employee, filed a lawsuit against him for sex trafficking.

According to an article on CNBC.com, Vince settled charges filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission related to his failure to disclose to the company’s board settlement agreements with two women on behalf of himself and WWE.

The SEC stated that Vince agreed to pay a $400,000 civil penalty and reimburse WWE $1.33 million after consenting to an order finding that he violated the Securities Exchange Act. It was also noted by the SEC that Vince’s failure to inform the WWE’s board, legal department, accountants or auditor of the settlements “circumvented WWE’s system of internal accounting controls and caused material misstatements in WWE’s 2018 and 2021 financial statements.”

Vince issued a public statement regarding the matter…

“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.”