Company to pay $50 million and set up anonymous "ethics hotline" for reporting unlawful behavior Ending a long-running investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), McAfee has agreed to pay a $50 million penalty and set up an anonymous “ethics hotline” where the company’s employees, customers and resellers can report unlawful behavior. The settlement was reached Wednesday, McAfee said.The hotline, currently under development, will consist of a toll-free telephone number and a Web site, where complaints can be lodged anonymously, said Siobhan MacDermott, McAfee’s vice president of worldwide corporate communications. Once entered, complaints will be forwarded to McAfee’s ethics committee for evaluation, she added.As part of the settlement, the Santa Clara, California, company has also agreed to appoint an independent consultant within 30 days to review McAfee’s accounting practices, MacDermott said. McAfee had been under investigation by the SEC since March 2002. The regulatory agency had been examining whether McAfee, formerly called Network Associates, had properly accounted for a December 2000 change in the way it booked software revenue.Last September, McAfee set aside $50 million in anticipation of this settlement, but these additional terms were not disclosed.McAfee has not admitted or denied any wrongdoing in the matter, the company said. SecurityDatabasesData and Information Security