ConAgra Foods agreed to pay $45 million in fines today to settle SEC fraud charges and improper accounting practices. The SEC discovered that the company had substantially distorted its financial statements between 1999 and 2000 while making numerous tax errors from 2002 to 2005. Interestingly, had the accounting been done properly, the company would have missed Wall Street estimates for 11 fiscal quarters between 1999 and 2002.

"The facts here are particularly troubling because of the number of different improprieties engaged in by ConAgra, the length of time over which they occurred, and the fact that senior management was involved in the misconduct," SEC Enforcement Director Linda Thomsen said in a statement.

The $45 million in fines will be put in a fund that will be dispursed to affected shareholders.