|
|
|
|
|
The Morning Risk Report: WWE Board Probes Secret $3 Million Hush Pact by CEO Vince McMahon, Sources Say
|
|
|
|
|
|
Good morning. The board of World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. is investigating a secret $3 million settlement that longtime chief executive Vince McMahon agreed to pay to a departing employee with whom he allegedly had an affair, according to documents and people familiar with the board inquiry.
The January 2022 separation agreement bars the now-former employee, who was hired as a paralegal in 2019, from discussing her relationship with Mr. McMahon or disparaging him, the people said.
[Continued below...]
|
|
|
Content from our Sponsor: DELOITTE
|
|
Amid Industry Turbulence, American Airlines Focuses on Its Customers
|
American Airlines Chief Customer Officer Alison Taylor discusses the company’s efforts to deliver a more seamless and intuitive customer experience. Read More ›
|
|
|
|
|
|
The board’s investigation, which began in April, has unearthed other, older nondisclosure agreements involving claims by former female WWE employees of misconduct by Mr. McMahon and one of his top executives, John Laurinaitis, the head of talent relations at WWE, the people said. The Journal couldn’t determine how many previous agreements were being scrutinized.
The board’s outside counsel was still collecting information about the other NDAs this week but has determined that the payments totaled in the millions of dollars, the people said.
|
|
|
|
From Risk & Compliance Journal
|
|
|
BitMEX Co-Founder Sentenced to Probation on Compliance Charge
|
|
Benjamin Delo, a co-founder of cryptocurrency derivatives exchange BitMEX, was sentenced to 30 months probation for violating U.S. anti-money-laundering law.
Mr. Delo, who was sentenced Wednesday in federal court in New York, has also paid a $10 million penalty as part of a deal with prosecutors and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. He pleaded guilty in February to a single count of violating the Bank Secrecy Act.
|
|
|
|
|
France is among countries where McDonald’s is very popular, counting some 1,500 restaurants. A McDonald's restaurant in Paris. PHOTO: NATHAN LAINE/BLOOMBERG NEWS
|
|
|
|
McDonald’s Corp. has agreed to pay roughly $1.3 billion in fines and back taxes to settle a tax dispute in France, where it faced a long-running probe into whether it properly declared all its activity.
The deal, which is set to be described in detail at a court hearing in Paris on Thursday morning, was reported by French newspaper Libération and confirmed by French prosecutors on Wednesday.
|
|
|
The European Union signed an agreement with Israel and Egypt to boost gas shipments on Wednesday, tapping into the gas riches of the eastern Mediterranean as it races to secure alternatives to Russian energy.
The EU, which for years has relied heavily on Russian gas to power factories and heat homes, is turning to the eastern Mediterranean to help replace Russian fossil fuels after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. But the Middle East’s fractious politics and capacity constraints pose challenges.
|
|
|
-
Electric-vehicle maker Tesla Inc. reported the most vehicle crashes suspected of involving advanced driver-assistance technology in the U.S. government’s first-ever survey of such incidents.
-
The Supreme Court made it easier for California companies to resolve disputes with employees through private arbitration, partially overturning a state court decision that allowed some workers to sidestep arbitration and address issues in court.
-
The Supreme Court said the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services unlawfully cut lucrative pharmaceutical subsidies to some hospitals, in a victory for hospitals that had disputed the move.
-
The European Union’s second-highest court scrapped a €997 million ($1.04 billion) fine that the bloc’s antitrust regulator had levied on Qualcomm Inc. over payments it made to Apple Inc. for the iPhone maker’s exclusive use of Qualcomm chips.
-
The Securities and Exchange Commission and a court-appointed monitor overseeing GPB Capital Holdings LLC are recommending a receivership to protect nearly $1 billion of investor assets and prevent GPB founder and owner David Gentile from reasserting control over the firm that has been likened to a Ponzi scheme by regulators.
|
|
|
|
|
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. PHOTO: WIN MCNAMEE/GETTY IMAGES
|
|
|
|
The Federal Reserve approved the largest interest rate increase since 1994 and signaled it would continue lifting rates this year at the most rapid pace in decades to combat inflation that is running at a 40-year high.
Officials agreed to a 0.75-percentage-point rate rise at their two-day policy meeting that concluded Wednesday, which will increase the Fed’s benchmark federal-funds rate to a range between 1.5% and 1.75%.
|
|
|
-
President Biden urged U.S. oil refiners to expand capacity and accused the companies of profiteering as the public pays record prices at the pump, in the latest effort by the Biden administration to combat soaring gasoline prices. Meanwhile, global demand for oil will rise above prepandemic levels next year following three years of Covid-19 lockdowns and the economic shock of the Ukraine war, the International Energy Agency said.
-
China’s economy improved slightly in May, offering hints of a recovery that is likely to remain fragile under the continuing threat of pandemic-related lockdowns.
-
Bitcoin staved off a fall under $20,000, bolstered by a market rally after the Federal Reserve approved its biggest interest rate increase since 1994. Meanwhile, Bill Gates says NFTs and crypto are "100%" based on greater fool theory.
-
The European Union announced fresh legal action against the British government on Wednesday over its proposed rewrite of parts of the Brexit agreement, setting up a protracted period of uncertainty over the deal’s future and a possible trade war in Europe.
-
U.S.-led coalition forces seized a man that officials described as a senior leader of Islamic State in an operation in northeast Syria late Wednesday.
|
|
|
|
|
Discussions about funding digital infrastructure in foreign countries started through the U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, center, and U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo speak with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian at a meeting of the council in France in mid-May. PHOTO: KEVIN LAMARQUE/ASSOCIATED PRESS
|
|
|
|
The U.S. and the European Union plan to introduce joint funding of secure digital infrastructure in developing countries, according to officials involved in the talks.
The effort marks the first time the EU and U.S. will work together to fund and help protect other countries’ critical infrastructure against cyberattacks. By working together on cybersecurity, the EU and U.S. aim to help countries that otherwise might be eager to accept funding from China, an EU official said.
|
|
|
FASB Scraps Project on Goodwill Accounting, Disclosure
|
|
The Financial Accounting Standards Board scrapped plans to consider new rules on how companies account for and disclose goodwill, a blow to businesses and investors that have sought improvements to the current model.
The U.S. accounting standard setter on Wednesday said it would remove the project from its technical agenda but said it could return to it at some point.
|
|
|
|
|
A rendering of a Virginia factory Lego plans to build, which would be its only one in the U.S. Construction is expected to begin this fall. PHOTO: THE LEGO GROUP
|
|
|
|
-
Lego A/S said it would spend $1 billion to build a new factory in the U.S. as the world’s largest toy maker looks to serve growing demand for its bricks in the region.
-
The South Korean government reached a deal with truckers to extend a minimum-wage plan, ending a weeklong strike that had snarled supply chains in one of Asia’s export powerhouses.
-
Atlantic City casino workers voted to authorize a strike for increased wages ahead of the Fourth of July holiday weekend.
-
Caterpillar Inc.’s planned relocation of its global headquarters to Texas from Illinois comes as the equipment maker and other companies expand their manufacturing bases south.
-
Fourteen markets across the Middle East and Southeast Asia banned theatrical showings of the Pixar movie “Lightyear,” Walt Disney Co. said, after the company declined to remove depictions of a same-sex relationship, including a kiss between two married female characters.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|