Vince McMahon Under Investigation For $3 Million ‘Hush Money Pact’

Vince McMahon has been involved in several scandals throughout the years. Now another one has fallen onto his lap as $3 million in hush money is being investigated.

WWE’s board has opened an investigation on CEO Vince McMahon’s secret $3 million settlement. The WWE chief executive agreed to give out $3 million as settlement to a former employee of the company leaving at the time.

The Wall Street Journal reports the documents unearthed in the investigation by the board as well as others acquainted with the inquiry allege McMahon of having an affair with the former employee. The former employee, who was hired as a paralegal in 2019, was barred by the January 2022 separation agreement from talking about the details of her relationship with Vince. However, the investigation has gone deeper into other matters.

The investigation, which started in April, revealed other nondisclosure agreements between female ex-employees of the company alleging misconduct by McMahon and John Laurinaitis. John heads the talent relations at WWE. While it’s unconfirmed how many NDAs there are in total, the board’s outside counsel claims that settlements have been handed out in millions of dollars.

New York law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP is conducting the investigation on behalf of the WWE board of directors. The preliminary findings of the investigation are that Vince McMahon made the female ex-employees sign NDAs, and then paid them off using his own funds, which also includes that claims against John Laurinaitis.

The law firm is looking into WWE’s company culture as a whole. They’re trying to understand whether the human resources and compliance programs are sufficient to keep employees safe or not. A WWE spokesperson told the journal that the company is fully cooperative with the due diligence. Vince McMahon’s lawyer Jerry McDevitt wrote to the journal and claimed that there was no harassment claim against the Chief Executive.

We will continue covering this ongoing story.

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