Former WWE employee accuses Vince McMahon of sex trafficking

A former employee of World Wrestling Entertainment sued Vince McMahon, the longtime chairman and CEO of WWE, in federal court on Thursday, accusing him of physical and emotional abuse, sexual assault and human trafficking.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Connecticut, alleges that Mr. McMahon, who was subject to an internal investigation into allegations of misconduct in 2022, sexually exploited and trafficked the former employee, Janel Grant, from 2019 to 2022. , John Laurinaitis, and the company itself are also named as defendants.

Mr. McMahon also pressured Ms. Grant to sign a non-disclosure agreement, the lawsuit said, in which he agreed to pay her $3 million in exchange for not discussing their relationship.

The lawsuit seeks to void the non-disclosure agreement. It is also seeking unspecified amounts in damages and legal fees. Ann Callis, a lawyer for Ms. Grant, declined to comment on the lawsuit Thursday.

Mrs. Grant's complaint, This was previously reported by The Wall Street Journalcontains graphic descriptions of sexual acts, threats and harassment she says she has faced in recent years as Mr. McMahon, 78, took control of her professional and personal life and used that power to abuse her psychologically and sexually.

When Ms. Grant met Mr. McMahon in 2019, the complaint states, her parents had recently died and she was unemployed. Mutual friends suggested she contact Mr. McMahon about a possible job with WWE. When the two met, Mr. McMahon greeted her while she was wearing only his underwear, the complaint said.

After promising her a position of power and a high salary within WWE, Mr. McMahon eventually offered Ms. Grant an entry-level job on the company's legal staff in June 2019 in exchange for sex, the lawsuit said.

Ms. Grant “felt trapped in an impossible situation,” the complaint says, “submitting to McMahon's sexual demands or facing ruin.”

Once they arrived at WWE headquarters in Stamford, Conn. worked, the abuse increased, the lawsuit said. Mr. McMahon took nude photos of her and filmed them having sex, the complaint said. He showed the photos and videos to other employees and later used them to silence her, the complaint said.

According to the lawsuit, the relationship became increasingly violent and coercive. Mr. McMahon pressured Ms. Grant to have sex with other people, the complaint says, including the other director named as a defendant, Mr. Laurinaitis. In one episode described in the lawsuit, Ms. Grant says that Mr. McMahon and Mr. Laurinaitis locked her in an office and took turns raping her.

In 2022, Mr. McMahon told Ms. Grant that his wife had learned of their relationship and that “Mrs. Grant's time with WWE had come to an end,” the lawsuit said, and he began pressuring Ms. Grant to sign a non-disclosure agreement to guarantee her silence. In return, Mr. McMahon promised her $3 million, the complaint said. He paid the first $1 million but failed to make further payments, according to the lawsuit.

But the sexual coercion continued into March 2022, two months after Mr. McMahon signed the nondisclosure agreement, according to the complaint, which details Mr. McMahon's business negotiations with an individual described in the complaint as a “WWE superstar'. To convince the wrestler to sign a new contract with WWE, Mr. McMahon offered sex with Ms. Grant as “part of the deal,” according to a screenshot of a text message included in the lawsuit.

Ms Grant's lawsuit says the abuse she suffered at the hands of Mr McMahon and others caused “debilitating” post-traumatic stress and suicidal thoughts. When she was forced out of WWE, she got a job in the operations department of her apartment building. According to the lawsuit, she lost that job because persistent trauma left her unable to leave her home for “weeks.”

Mr. McMahon's lawyers could not be reached for comment Thursday.

The legal action raises new questions about the investigation conducted in 2022 by a special committee of the WWE Board of Directors into Mr. McMahon's conduct. Investigators found that Mr. McMahon had done so spent $14.6 million on payments to women between 2006 and 2022 who had accused him of sexual misconduct and that the payments should have been recorded as business expenses. Further investigation by the company revealed that Mr. McMahon had made additional payments totaling $5 million to two other women.

The board's investigative committee “never bothered to interview Ms. Grant,” according to her lawsuit, which describes the investigation as a “sham.”

Jeff Speed, who led the investigation as a board member, described it as thorough and emphasized that Mr McMahon had “publicly left the company” while it was ongoing.

“I remain confident in our investigation, including contact with Ms. Grant and cooperation with her attorney,” Mr. Speed ​​said in an email sent Thursday by Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, the law firm hired to investigate the investigation. represent the committee.

Mr. Speed, who left the WWE board in 2023added that he recognized “the heinous nature of the allegations” in the lawsuit, but that he “was not at liberty to comment on what was and was not learned during our investigation.”

Mr. McMahon temporarily resigned from the company during the investigation, though he remained “a controlling shareholder,” according to the company's quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission in August 2023. In another SEC filing, WWE known that federal investigators had executed a search warrant and had subpoenaed Mr. McMahon. Federal regulatory and law enforcement agencies also demanded that the company turn over documents.

No criminal charges have been brought against Mr McMahon, who denied “any intentional wrongdoing”. in a statement last year. He agreed to reimburse the company for the costs of the investigation and returned to manage WWE in early 2023.

Shortly after his return, Mr. McMahon negotiated a deal to sell the company to the Endeavor Group, which owns the mixed-martial-arts league UFC. Mr McMahon retained 28 million shares in the combined company, now called TKO Group, where he also works. the executive chairman. A TKO spokesperson could not be reached for comment on Thursday.