Former WWE executive and personality Vince McMahon is under a federal investigation as he grapples with sex trafficking allegations by an ex-employee, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
The investigation stems from sexual misconduct accusations a number of women made against McMahon.
McMahon received a grand jury subpoena “sometime in the summer,” the sources said.
The U.S. Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York is leading the investigation, the existence of which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. A spokesman for the prosecutor’s office declined to comment.
The nature of the investigation was not immediately clear, but it could be financial after the paper reported in 2022 that McMahon agreed to pay more than $12 million in the past two decades to suppress allegations of sexual misconduct.
Once the face of the organization, McMahon resigned from the WWE last week after former employee Janel Grant accused him of inflicting “psychological torture and physical violence” while making “depraved sexual demands” in exchange for her continued employment.
The lawsuit accused McMahon of trafficking Grant to other WWE employees and included graphic descriptions of alleged encounters along with explicit text messages. McMahon has denied Grant’s allegations.
An attorney for McMahon and a spokesman for WWE did not immediately return messages seeking comment.
Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
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