According to an exclusive report by the New York Post, Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have dropped a criminal probe against former WWE CEO and Chairman Vince McMahon.
The probe was regarding whether McMahon had attempted to cover up multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, per a statement to the NY Post by his lawyer. This comes now after appeals judges last Friday revealed that a grand jury had considered whether McMahon had broken the law by hiding allegations of sexual misconduct from two of WWE’s former female employees, whom he ended up paying out $10.5 million in what has been referred to as hush money.
The report also notes that a ruling from a three-judge panel does not name McMahon but does refer to “the subject of an ongoing grand jury investigation concerning whether, as CEO, he engaged in a criminal scheme to circumvent the company’s internal accounting controls and mislead company auditors in order to conceal multiple allegations of sexual misconduct raised against him by two former company employees.”
Sources familiar with the matter confirmed to the New York Post that McMahon is the former CEO who is referenced in the ruling. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals decision suggests the case is still active. However, Robert W. Allen, who is McMahon’s Lawyer and a former Manhattan federal prosecutor, said on Tuesday that the prosecutors have ended the probe without asking the grand jury to bring an indictment against him.
“This is simply the result of an appeal of a procedural matter that was argued five months ago…We have been in consistent communication with the government since that time and understand, with no ambiguity, that the investigation has definitively concluded and will not result in charges.”
It was further noted that prosecutors’ apparent decision to abandon the case comes despite a June 2024 ruling by federal judge Valerie Caproni, which states that the government had “established probable cause to believe” that McMahon and one of his former lawyers broke the law. Caproni’s ruling states there is evidence that they “circumvented [the Company’s] internal controls and created false books and records,” “concealed the Victims’ claims and settlement agreements from [the Company],” and “made false and misleading statements to the Company’s auditors.” In addition, Caproni and the appeals panel that is consists of judges Gerard Lynch, Beth Robinson and Sarah Merriam ruled in favor of prosecutors on an evidence issue, writing that McMahon’s conversations with his attorneys were not subject to attorney-client privilege.
The ruling from last Friday notes that the appeals court has seen files which show that McMahon’s former lawyer “specifically instructed” him to talk about the payoffs “via text instead of email for the express purpose of avoiding the Company gaining knowledge of it. Judge Lynch wrote on behalf of the panel that the facts and others provide “a sufficient basis for a prudent person to believe that the settlement negotiations and resulting attorney-client communications were structured and intended to conceal the resulting agreements from the Company.”
A source familiar with the matter told the New York Post that prosecutors decided to drop the case at some point between September 18, 2024 and January 10, 2025 when the Securities and Exchange Commission, announced it had reached a settlement with McMahon to resolve the cover-up claims.
If the criminal probe has indeed ended without an indictment, this would mark the second time that McMahon has come out from a federal law enforcement probe without being convicted of any crimes or wrongdoing.
McMahon was acquitted in 1994 after an 18-day trial in federal court regarding charges against him for conspiracy to distribute anabolic steroids to his wrestlers.