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Former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO Vince McMahon is under a federal criminal investigation as prosecutors try to determine whether federal law was violated in conduct related to recent sex trafficking allegations that have been made public in lawsuits, they told NBC News two people familiar with the matter.
Last week, the company, McMahon and a former WWE executive were sued by a former employee alleging those crimes.
McMahon has also talked about being under a federal investigation and having a phone confiscated by federal officials, a high-level WWE executive and another personal friend told NBC News.
The Wall Street Journal was the first to report on the federal investigation.
Although McMahon denied the allegations in last week’s lawsuit, he resigned a day later as executive chairman of the board of directors of TKO Group, WWE’s parent company. He also resigned from the TKO board of directors and no longer has any role in WWE.
Representatives for McMahon, TKO Group and WWE did not immediately respond Friday to requests for comment on the federal investigation. Nicholas Biase, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, declined to comment.
The 78-year-old’s departure is a major shakeup to the professional wrestling empire that for decades has seen McMahon and his family members run the company.
Janel Grant, a former WWE employee, filed a lawsuit on January 25 against McMahon and former WWE executive John Laurinaitis, alleging that she was a “victim of physical and emotional abuse, sexual assault and trafficking in WWE.”
McMahon disputed the allegations, saying in a statement last week: “I stand by my previous statement that Ms. Grant’s lawsuit is filled with lies, made-up obscene cases that never occurred, and is a vindictive distortion of the truth.”
McMahon has not been criminally charged in connection with the lawsuit’s allegations.
A lawyer for Laurinaitis said: “My client vigorously denies the allegations made against him in this lawsuit. We will eventually respond in the appropriate forum.”
McMahon is no stranger to sexual assault allegations and has survived several during his reign in the company.
In 1992, Rita Chatterton, the company’s first referee, accused McMahon of rape. Although he denied the accusation, he came to a settlement with her last year. McMahon also faced federal conspiracy charges for allegedly orchestrating steroid use among WWE wrestlers, and was found not guilty by a jury in 1994.
McMahon had resigned as WWE CEO in 2022 after an investigation found he had paid nearly $15 million to four women over 16 years to silence allegations of sexual misconduct.
Even during that time, McMahon maintained control of the company as a majority shareholder. He was reinstated to the company’s board of directors last year, WWE said.