Newly public deposition testimony from WWE President Nick Khan has revealed that the federal investigation involving former WWE Chairman Vince McMahon included possible violations related to sex trafficking statutes, contradicting McMahon’s previous public characterization of the investigation as strictly involving accounting matters.
The testimony stems from a December 2025 deposition conducted as part of an ongoing shareholder merger lawsuit in Delaware Chancery Court involving former WWE board members. The testimony became public after POST Wrestling challenged the confidential designation attached to portions of the case materials.
During questioning from plaintiff attorney Edward Timlin, Khan was asked when he first became aware that the Department of Justice investigation extended beyond financial and accounting concerns.
“When the search warrants for the devices were served upon Vince, Brad Blum, and Vince’s personal assistant and when those warrants were sent from Vince’s lawyers to WWE’s lawyers, and they were read to me and it included sex trafficking is when I was aware of it,” Khan testified.
Khan reportedly stated multiple times throughout the deposition that he understood sex trafficking statutes were among the federal statutes being examined by investigators. He also confirmed that prosecutors questioned him directly about alleged sex crimes during his own interview with the government, in addition to matters involving recorded payments.
When presented with a grand jury subpoena containing references to both securities statutes and sex trafficking statutes, Khan acknowledged that he later learned sex trafficking laws were indeed part of the investigation.
“I certainly did learn that that was the case,” Khan said.
According to the testimony, the search warrants referencing sex trafficking statutes had allegedly been sent from McMahon’s attorneys at Kirkland & Ellis to WWE’s legal team, indicating that McMahon’s lawyers were aware of the nature of the investigation years before McMahon publicly addressed the matter in January 2025.
Following a settlement with the SEC earlier that year, McMahon issued a statement that read in part:
“In the end, there was never anything more to this than minor accounting errors with regard to some personal payments that I made several years ago while I was CEO of WWE.”
Separately, former WWE employee Janel Grant, who filed a civil lawsuit against McMahon and WWE in January 2024 alleging sexual assault and sex trafficking, recently shared what appeared to be documentation from the FBI’s Victim Notification System. The materials allegedly identified her as a potential victim connected to an active federal investigation conducted by the FBI’s New York office.
According to POST Wrestling, Grant’s Instagram account was verified as authentic. Grant also reportedly shared what appeared to be a separate email from the FBI’s New York office dated May 30, 2025.
Despite the investigation spanning approximately 2022 through 2025, McMahon was never criminally indicted. The investigation ultimately concluded without charges being filed. McMahon has denied all allegations of sexual misconduct made against him.
Khan and the other former WWE board members named in the shareholder merger lawsuit have also denied the key allegations brought against them in the case.
