The Associated Press is reporting that a former lawyer for Vince McMahon was wrong to withhold some documents from a federal grand jury in how they investigated how the now former WWE CEO and Chairman WWE handled multimillion-dollar settlement agreements with two female employees that accused him of sexual abuse, per a federal appeals court ruling on Monday.
The Associated Press also notes that three judges on the 2nd U.S. Court of Appeals in New York upheld a lower court ruling which states that those documents were not protected by attorney-client privilege because of an exception for “crime or fraud.”
It was additionally stated that the appeals court stated that the lower court judge found prosecutors had reasonable grounds to believe that Vince McMahon and his lawyer had illegally “circumvented” the WWE’s internal controls and created false records when they concealed the employees’ claims and settlement agreements from the company. It was further added that they made false and misleading statements to the company’s auditors, even though Vince paid the settlements with funds that did not come directly from WWE.
The AP report also states that the appellate panel said that while Vince’s lawyer submitted several materials in response to a grand jury subpoena, they also had submitted a log of 208 documents which were being withheld under the assertions of attorney-client privilege.
Identities of the parties were not disclosed in the appeals court opinion. However, a person said to be familiar with the matter confirmed the unnamed “former Chief Executive Officer of a ”publicly traded company” was indeed to be Vince McMahon. Furthermore, it was added in the report by the AP, that this person insisted on anonymity to discuss details that have not been made public at this time.
At the time of the report from the Associated Press, the status of the grand jury investigation was not immediately clear. When the AP asked the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan about the investigation, they declined to comment.
Representatives for Vince McMahon, who has continually denied anhy wrongdoing, said they had no immediate comment on the court ruling. McMahon has previously suggested that he was no longer under any sort of investigation.
Last month, McMahon said in a statement “nearly three years of investigation by different governmental agencies” into his actions came to an end. His statement came as the federal Securities and Exchange Commission announced it had settled charges against him over his failure to disclose the settlement agreements with the two now-former employees to WWE officials and its Board of Directors.
The statement from McMahon included that there was never anything more to it that minor accounting errors with regarding to some personal payments made several years ago while he was the CEO of WWE. He went on to say that he was thrilled he that could put everything behind him.
However, the report from AP further notes the appeals court, however, said in Monday’s ruling that the case “concerns proceedings currently before a grand jury. At present, no indictments have been issued.” The opinion has also disclosed some new details of the grand jury probe.
Representatives for one of the former employees, Janel Grant who received a settlement agreement from McMahon, declined to comment to the Associated Press on Monday.
Grant filed a lawsuit in January 2024 during Royal Rumble weekend that includes sex abuse, sexual harassment, sex trafficking against Vince McMahon in January of 2024, alleging she was forced to leave her job at WWE and then sign a $3 million nondisclosure agreement. Grant is also seeking to have the NDA to be be declared invalid, further noting McMahon breached the agreement by only paying her $1 million of the agreement.
The Associated Press article also notes the following:
-The $3 million settlement is mentioned in the appellate court ruling, along with another $7.5 million settlement that McMahon had made with another former employee.
-According to appellate court documents, prosecutors served subpoenas on McMahon’s lawyer, who is unnamed in the court documents and the attorney’s firm in September 2023, as they are seeking all communications between McMahon, his attorney and the law firm regarding the two former employees, according to the appellate court. The court also added the lawyer helped McMahon negotiate the settlement agreements.
-When the lawyer withheld some of the documents by using the attorney-client privilege, prosecutors asked the lower court to compel production of the record, which then lead to the appeal that was decided upon on Monday.
The appellate judges wrote the following (courtesy of the AP report):
“Because the settlement agreements resolving the Victims’ claims were ‘structured and negotiated … to keep them hidden from (the Company),’ the district court found that ’all communications about the claims and settlement agreements were made in furtherance of the criminal scheme to keep (the Company) and its auditors unaware of the allegations.’”
McMahon has since resigned from WWE and its parent company TKO.