Lawyer for Vince McMahon Claims Federal Criminal Investigation Has Been Dropped

The New York Post reports that a lawyer for Vince McMahon has claimed that the federal criminal investigation into McMahon has been dropped. An investigation started after Janel Grant previously filed a lawsuit accusing McMahon of sex trafficking, rape and more.

In addition, appeals judges on Friday said that a grand jury considered whether or not McMahon broke the law by hiding claims of sexual misconduct from two former employees, who he paid $10.5 million in exchange for silence. McMahon was not named directly. However the ruling mentions “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 noted that McMahon was the person mentioned.

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals decision implies the case is active, but Robert W. Allen, McMahon’s attorney, said that prosecutors ended the investigation without asking the grand jury for an indictment.

Allen said: “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.”

Judge Valerie Caproni ruled in June of last year that the US government had “established probable cause to believe” that McMahon and one of his former lawyers broke the law. They noted that there was evidence 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.” Caproni and the appeals panel ruled in favor of the prosecutors on evidence and said that McMahon’s conversations with his legal team were not subject to attorney-client privilege.

The appeals court were able to view files that showed McMahon’s former attorney told him to talk about the payments “via text instead of email for the express purpose of avoiding the Company gaining knowledge of it.” According to them, this was 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.”

However, prosecutors still decided to drop the case between September 18 and January 10, after the SEC said it reached a settlement with McMahon. McMahon said at the time he would not face criminal charges, noting that it was nothing more than “minor accounting errors”. He said he was “thrilled that I can now put all this behind me.”

The investigation appeared to be focused not on the sex trafficking claims, but whether McMahon broke the law by covering up the claims.

It should be noted that Grant’s lawsuit against McMahon, WWE and John Laurinaitis is still active.