DETROIT (WWJ) – The City of Detroit’s Police and Fire Retirement System has filed a lawsuit against Vince McMahon, the chairman of World Wrestling Entertainment.
The PFRS, which helps police officers and firefighters across the city deal with the challenges of retirement, disability or death, filed a class action lawsuit in Delaware last week seeking to effectively block McMahon from regaining control of the organization.
The board has a vested interest in WWE, with about 350 shares in the organization, worth about $100,000, according to WWJ Legal Analyst Charlie Langton.
McMahon, 77, retired last summer amid ongoing sexual misconduct investigations, which the lawsuit alleges he settled for about $12 million. The PFRS lawsuit claims McMahon used his controlling interest to fire three board members, change the bylaws and take his position back.
The lawsuit also aims to slow a potential sale of the company.
Langton said the first question he had is why the board is even invested in WWE.
“Well apparently they are, and that’s in part because the WWE is a publicly traded corporation and they’ve got some pretty good earnings,” he said live on WWJ Wednesday afternoon. “The board does have the ability to invest its money – $2.8 billion of total assets – they can invest it anywhere they’d like. And about $100,000 of it is being invested in the WWE. As a shareholder, though, they do keep tabs on their investments.”
He says the board doesn’t like that McMahon is back in charge in the midst of the controversy.
As of Wednesday afternoon, there has been no response from WWE or McMahon and no court date has been set.
The lawsuit filed by the PFRS is “nearly identical” to a complaint filed on Jan. 10 by a WWE stockholder named Scott Fellows, according to a report from Yahoo. Attorneys from Labaton Sucharow, Friedlander & Gorris and Kaskela Law are representing both cases, according to the report.
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