The Securities and Exchange Commission and federal prosecutors have begun probing pacts worth millions of dollars made by WWE chief executive Vince McMahon to settle sexual misconduct allegations over the last two decades, according to a new report by The Wall Street Journal. On Monday, the wrestling franchise reported a previously undisclosed sum of $14.6 million paid personally by McMahon, 76, from 2006 to 2022. The company said it would revise its previous financial statements going back to 2019 to reflect the payments, according to the Journal. The new federal investigations reportedly accelerated McMahon’s retirement from the WWE, announced last Friday. The hush-money scandal was ignited by a Journal report from last month, alleging that McMahon had paid $3 million to a former employee after an alleged affair that left her “scared” enough to quit. Earlier this month, the Journal reported that McMahon had doled out $12 million to four women, included a WWE contractor who was allegedly coerced into giving him oral sex and then all but fired.
