McAfee has agreed to pay a $50 million fine as part of a deal to close the Securities and Exchange Commission's investigation of the software company's accounting scandal related to "manipulative accounting artifices…and undisclosed ploys" that company executives used to inflate revenue and increase the company's stock price from 1998 through 2000, reports the Mercury News. The No. 2 maker of anti-virus software did not admit or deny the SEC's allegations. It agreed to appoint an independent consultant to conduct a one-time review of its accounting practices and will expand its ethics program.