World Wrestling Entertainment filed suit against Jakks Pacific and a number of other defendants on Wednesday, alleging that a WWE executive was bribed by Jakks and WWE's licensing agent in order to secure a WWE videogame license for a joint venture of Jakks and THQ in 1998.  In addition to various damage claims, WWE also asks that its videogame licenses to the joint venture and its toy license to Jakks be voided.

 

The other defendants in the case are two foreign subsidiaries of Jakks,  the Jakks/THQ joint venture, Stanley Shenker & Associates, WWE's former licensing agent, Shenker, James Bell, former WWE Sr. VP of Licensing and Merchandising, and the CEO, President, and CFO of Jakks. 

 

The suit alleges that the foreign subsidiaries paid money to foreign bank accounts controlled by Shenker, who then shared the money with Bell, around the time that the videogame license was given to the Jakks/THQ joint venture. 

 

Jakks has denied all claims and said it will vigorously defend against the suit. 

 

Analysts said Wednesday that losing the WWE license would reduce Jakks' sales by about 10%.  Jakks shares dropped 31% on Wednesday.