WASHINGTON — Mortgage finance company Freddie Mac yesterday agreed to pay $50 million to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges that it fraudulently misstated earnings over a four-year period.

Four former Freddie Mac executives settled negligent-conduct charges by agreeing to pay a total of $515,000 in civil fines and to make restitution totaling $275,548. They are former president and chief operating officer David Glenn, ex-chief financial officer Vaughn Clarke and former senior vice presidents Robert Dean and Nazir Dossani.

"We take these charges seriously, and that's why the Freddie Mac of today is a very different company than the Freddie Mac of the past," said Richard Syron, Freddie Mac's chairman and chief executive officer.

Freddie Mac neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing in the accord but agreed to refrain from future violations of the securities laws.

An accounting scandal erupted at the government-sponsored company in June 2003 when it disclosed that it had misstated earnings by some $5 billion — mostly underreported — for 2000-2002 to smooth quarterly volatility in earnings and meet Wall Street expectations.

The company's top executives — Glenn, Clarke and then-chairman and chief executive Leland Brendsel — were ousted. The events shocked Wall Street, where Freddie Mac, the nation's second-largest buyer and guarantor of home mortgages, long was seen as a steady performer and reliable corporate player.