According to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) complaint filed in federal court in Connecticut, the General Electric (GE) conglomerate used improper accounting methods to meet or beat its earnings expectations, thereby deliberately defrauding investors.

As per the SEC allegations pertaining to the accounting fraud on the part of the GE group - owning manufacturing, media and financial companies -, the company 'managed' to meet or surpass analysts' earnings estimates every quarter from 1995 through 2004.

The SEC specified that the alleged violations of accounting rules by GE included the company's accounting for particular loans and sales of trains and aircraft parts. In addition, SEC said that four times separately in 2002 and 2003, GE executives signed off on accounting decisions that did not conform to the finances-reporting rules for public companies - while two depicted outright fraud; two revealed negligence.

Commenting on the GE accounting fraud, which helped the company boost its earnings by hundreds of millions of dollars, Robert Khuzami, SEC's Director of the Enforcement Division, said: "GE bent the accounting rules beyond the breaking point. Overly aggressive accounting can distort a company's true financial condition and mislead investors."

Meanwhile, saying that it was in the company's "best interest to resolve the matter", GE - without either admitting or denying the civil fraud charges - has agreed to pay the $50 million fine to settle the case.