Media giant Time Warner Inc. is paying US$300 million to settle fraud charges by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for overstating online advertising revenues and the number of its Internet subscribers.

As part of an agreement announced Monday, Time Warner has restated its financial results to reduce the amount of online advertising revenues it reported by about US$500 million from the fourth quarter of 2000 through 2002, the SEC said.

Time Warner neither admitted nor denied any wrongdoing. However, it has agreed to appoint an independent examiner who will further review the company’s accounting for several previous transactions. That report, which is expected to be done within six months, could result in further restatements.