WWE finds two more payments Vince McMahon made that should have been recorded as company expenses

A new regulatory filing from WWE published Tuesday evening states the company found two additional payments together worth $5 million that Vince McMahon made that should have been recorded as company expenses because they benefited WWE.

That brings total unrecorded expenses related to McMahon’s NDA payments to $19.6 million.

The payments were made in 2007 and 2009, according to the filing signed by chief financial officer, Frank Riddick.

WWE expects to be able to report second-quarter earnings “within the five day extension period provided under Rule 12b-25 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934”. WWE wrote in a previous filing that it was targeting Tuesday for an earnings release.

To account for the unrecorded expenses, the company will reissue financial results going back to 2019.

The new filing also confirms John Lauranaitis’s separation from WWE, which was reported yesterday by PWInsider and Fightful.

The filing mentions the Board’s investigation related to Vince McMahon and “another executive, who is also no longer with the Company.”

The other executive would be Laurinaitis. WWE’s press release in June stated the company was “conducting an investigation into alleged misconduct by its Chairman and CEO Vincent McMahon and John Laurinaitis, head of talent relations”.

The Wall Street Journal reported on June 15 that Laurinaitis and McMahon both had a relationship with a former paralegal at WWE, who McMahon paid $3 million to sign a non-disclosure agreement.

WWE citing it found two more payments would bring the total number of payments that weren’t properly recorded to at least seven.

The Journal’s second story on this subject, published last month, reported four women who worked for WWE were paid more than $12 million by McMahon to keep them from speaking about allegations of sexual misconduct and inappropriate relationships.

WWE’s disclosed in July it found payments totaling $14.6 million, seeming to indicate there was at least one additional payment the company was aware of that hadn’t yet been reported by media.

McMahon’s lawyer Jerry McDevitt told the Journal that McMahon used personal money for the payments. The company determined the payments should have been recorded as company expenses because they were made to benefit WWE.

McMahon resigned from all his roles in WWE on July 22. He remains the company’s controlling shareholder. The Journal reported investigations from federal agencies played a role in his voluntary exit from the company.

The investigation into alleged misconduct by McMahon and Laurinaitis, and review of the company’s culture, is ongoing, according to the filing.