General Electric is to pay a $50m (£29.5m) civil penalty “without admitting or denying allegations of any wrongdoing” after charges from the SEC that it had been guilty of improper accounting. The SEC said GE had changed the way it filed accounts to make its results more appealing to investors.

The SEC accused GE of “reporting materially false and misleading results in its financial statements,” and declared that, “GE bent the accounting rules beyond the breaking point.”

Given that GE reported an earnings fall of 47% to $2.9bn (£1.7bn) in the second quarter of 2009 $50m looks like small beans.