WWE Finds Another $5 Million in Unrecorded Expenses Connected to Vince McMahon

WWE announced via an SEC filing on Tuesday that it has uncovered an additional $5 million in unrecorded payments directly connected to Vince McMahon and will be delaying the filing of its quarterly financial report as a result. Days after McMahon had announced his retirement from all positions within WWE, the company had to file for $14.6 million in unrecorded expenses made by McMahon from 2006-2022 and re-do previous quarterly financial reports going back several years. Those payments are directly linked to the accusations against McMahon for paying multiple former female employees to keep alleged sexual misconduct quiet. The new filing confirmed that, despite McMahon's departure, he is still being actively investigated by the WWE Board of Directors.

"On July 25, 2022, the Company announced that it has made a preliminary determination that certain payments that Vince McMahon agreed to make during the period from 2006 through 2022 (including amounts paid and payable in the future totaling $14.6 million) were not appropriately recorded as expenses in the Company's consolidated financial statements," the new filing reads.

"Since that time, 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," it continued. "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."

Following McMahon's departure, Stephanie McMahon and Nick Khan were named the new Co-CEOs of the company while Paul "Triple H" Levesque was named the Head of Creative and Head of Talent Relations. The filing also confirmed John Laurinaitis had officially been fired by the company, as confirmed earlier this week.

The accusations against McMahon, many of which were reported on in The Wall Street Journal, included him allegedly paying $3 million to a former paralegal and paying $7.5 million to a former wrestler he had coerced into giving him oral sex, then rebuked later sexual advances.