After retiring from the WWE last July and stepping down from his duties as the CEO, Chairman and Head of Creative due to paying nearly $20 million in previously unrecorded expenses, almost $15 million of which were hush money for the sexual misconduct allegations he received from four women over the past 16 years and $5 million of which to the now-defunct foundation of former U.S. President Donald Trump, Vince McMahon forcibly made his way back to the company, returned to the Board of Directors and would ultimately be named the Executive Chairman of the Board.
A number of law firms issued press releases last summer, where it was noted that they have considered bringing a class-action lawsuit against the WWE following the Vince McMahon hush money scandal. These firms noted that they were investigating the WWE for “violations of the securities laws” on behalf of their investors and were focused on “whether WWE and/or the company’s officers and directors violated the securities laws or breached their fiduciary duties in connection with the alleged misconduct” and the press release was based on the Wall Street Journal reports regarding Vince’s hush money scandal.
Some of those law firms include Kaskela Law LLC, Scott+Scott, Rosen Law Firm, Schall Law Firm, Brager Eagel & Squire, Labaton Sucharow, Moore Kuehn PLLC, Pomerantz Law Firm and Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC. In June of last year, Scott+Scott filed a WWE shareholder derivative suit and now that Vince returned to the WWE’s Board of Directors, the lawsuit may move forward. An update was provided by PWInsider on an email they received from a friend of the Scott+Scott lawyers, who is a part of the WWE’s shareholders derivative lawsuit.
You can check out the gist of the email below:
“I hope you had a great holiday season. I’m writing with an update on WWE. We have been working with the company for several months and have received several internal documents, which we have been reviewing. We expect to get an additional batch of documents this week.”
“You also may have seen the news this past week about Vince McMahon forcing his way back onto the board, along with a major board shakeup. As a result, we believe there is enough of a basis to bring a breach of a fiduciary lawsuit. We hope to file a complaint against McMahon and possibly other directors/officers for breaching their duties to WWE and its shareholders. We should have a draft for you to review in the next couple of days.”
“It will also require a signature on a one-page verification which we will also send. In the meantime, do you have a phone number we could use in case we need to contact you that way? Please let me know if you have any questions about anything.”
