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SEC says McMahon hid conduct, expenses from WWE

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Women have accused McMahon of assault

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McMahon says SEC settlement ends three years of probes

(Recasts with settlement details, adds Vince McMahon's

comments, SEC accusations, background throughout)

By Jonathan Stempel and Chris Prentice

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Vince McMahon,

the former World Wrestling Entertainment chief executive,

settled U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charges he

concealed from the company's board two settlement agreements

worth $10.5 million with women who had potential claims against

him.

The SEC said on Friday that McMahon's actions circumvented

WWE's internal accounting controls, and led to the company's

restating its financial statements in August 2022.

McMahon, a 79-year-old billionaire, did not admit wrongdoing

in agreeing to pay a $400,000 civil fine and reimburse $1.33

million to WWE.

In a statement, he said the accord ends nearly three years

of investigations by various government agencies.

"The case is closed," McMahon said. "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 stepped down as WWE's chief executive in 2022, as

the wrestling company was investigating accusations mirroring

those in the SEC case.

According to the SEC, one of the settlement agreements

called for McMahon to pay $7.5 million to an independent

contractor who said he assaulted her and derailed her career

after she refused to have a sexual relationship with him.

The other called for McMahon to pay $3 million to a former

WWE employee in exchange for her silence about their

relationship between 2019 and 2022, the SEC said.

Neither woman was identified by name by the SEC.

Last January, former WWE employee Janel Grant sued McMahon

for sexual assault and trafficking, saying he pressured her to

sign a nondisclosure agreement in exchange for $3 million, after

his wife Linda McMahon learned about their relationship, but

paid just $1 million.

That case is still pending, court records show. Vince

McMahon has denied Grant's allegations.

WWE's restatement came after an internal investigation

identified $20 million in payments by McMahon between 2006 and

2022 that should have been recorded as expenses.

The SEC said the failure to record various payments caused

WWE to overstate net income by 8% in 2018 and 1.7% in 2021.

McMahon resigned last January from wrestling giant TKO Group ( TKO )

, created from the 2023 merger of WWE and the parent of

Ultimate Fighting Championship, or UFC.

TKO, based in Stamford, Connecticut, did not immediately

respond on Friday to requests for comment.

Linda McMahon has also served as WWE's chief executive.

President-elect Donald Trump chose her to become secretary of

the Department of Education. McMahon and her husband are

separated, her lawyer has told media.