The World Wrestling Entertainment board is investigating longtime Chairman/CEO Vince McMahon for previously undisclosed settlement agreements with former employees.
Those include a payoff of $3 million to a female employee he allegedly had an affair with, according to a Wall Street Journal report.McMahon is the majority shareholder of the publicly traded company’s Class B shares, which grant him overwhelming voting power.
Additionally, the board has various members of his family.The board probe began in April, the WSJ report says. The employee who received the $3 million settlement reportedly had a consensual relationship with McMahon, who used personal funds for the payoff.However, the board probe has unearthed other, older nondisclosure agreements involving claims by former female WWE employees against McMahon and one of his top executives, John Laurinaitis, the head of talent relations at WWE, the WSJ reported.
It could not put a number on the settlement count, but said they were in the millions of dollars. The WSJ said the board believes that all of the settlements came from McMahon’s personal funds, including the one settlement involving Laurinaitis.New York-based law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP is heading the investigation, the WSJ reported.
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