WWE Reveals More Payments From Vince McMahon, Total Reaches $19.6 Million
World Wrestling Entertainment has revealed more personal payments made by Vince McMahon, which puts the total amount of payments at $19.6 million.
A new SEC filing on Tuesday, August 9th showed that WWE discovered two more payments totaling $5 million. Those payments were made in 2007 and 2009.
It was on July 25th when WWE announced that they planned on reissuing new company financial statements for 2019, 2020, 2021, and the first quarter (Q1) of 2022.
The reason why WWE announced the new statements would be coming is that at that time there were $14.6 million in payments made by Vince that should have been declared as business expenses. Instead, McMahon tried to hide it. This came just days after McMahon announced his retirement from WWE on Friday, July 22nd. The main reason why the 76-year-old McMahon retired is because of allegations of sexual misconduct and hush money payments paid to multiple women over the last two decades.
WWE was scheduled to reissue their financial statements on August 9th, but the latest discoveries have made it impossible to do, so they will be reissued at a later date.
The statement also noted that all of the payments “were or will be paid by [Vince] McMahon personally.” This is how it appears in the SEC filing.
“The Company has determined that two additional payments totaling $5.0 million, unrelated to the allegations that led to the Special Committee investigation, that Mr. McMahon made in 2007 and 2009 should have been recorded in the Company’s consolidated financial statements. Together, these unrecorded expenses total $19.6 million (the “Unrecorded Expenses”). The Company has evaluated the Unrecorded Expenses and has determined that such amounts should have been recorded as expenses in each of the periods in which they became probable and estimable. All payments underlying the Unrecorded Expenses were or will be paid by Mr. McMahon personally. The Special Committee investigation remains ongoing.”
The SEC filing also confirmed the news that former WWE VP and Head of Talent Relations John Laurinaitis has been fired, as was reported yesterday. While Laurinaitis worked for WWE since the company bought WCW in 2001, he was not well-liked by many people including one superstar who called him “the biggest snake in the business.”
John Laurinaitis is also being investigated by WWE’s Board of Directors regarding a “$1.5 million non-disclosure agreement reached in 2012 with an employee.” That was also related to McMahon, who promoted the woman and made her an assistant of Laurinaitis.
The post-Vince era moves ahead with his daughter Stephanie McMahon as the Chairwoman and Co-CEO along with Co-CEO Nick Khan. Meanwhile, Stephanie’s husband Paul Levesque (also known as Triple H to WWE fans) runs Talent Relations and has taken over Vince’s role as the Head of Creative.