In the Complaint, the SEC alleged that: "McAfee, Inc., formerly known as Network Associates, Inc. (hereinafter referred to as 'McAfee'), a publicly-traded manufacturer and supplier of computer programs and hardware based in Santa Clara, California, carried out a multimillion dollar financial fraud between 1998 to 2000. During the period, McAfee overstated its revenues by $622 million in order to meet revenue and earnings targets and understated its cumulative net losses by $353 million. McAfee stuffed its distribution channel and improperly recorded hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue on sales transactions with distributors in violation of the antifraud and other provisions of the federal securities laws. In a fraudulent scheme to oversell its products and immediately record the revenue from those transactions, McAfee secretly gave its distributors substantial cash payments, price discounts, rebates, and other concessions as inducements to continue buying, as well as to not return, McAfee products that the distributors had no reasonable expectation of selling to customers. McAfee also inflated its revenues in certain quarters during the relevant period by engaging in sham sales transactions that lacked economic substance and by improperly selling its accounts receivables in certain quarters, in order to perpetuate the misleading impression that McAfee had robust, non-discounted product sales."

On February 9, 2006, Federal District Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton entered final judgment against McAfee, Inc. pursuant to the consent of McAfee, Inc.

On February 22, 2010, the SEC announced the distribution of approximately $67 million to more than 16,000 investors in connection with McAfee, Inc. financial fraud settlements. The Fair Fund was created after McAfee (formerly Network Associates, Inc.), agreed to pay approximately $50 million in penalties and disgorgement to settle SEC charges in 2006 that it defrauded investors by overstating its revenues and earnings. Subsequently, the proceeds from three other settled SEC enforcement actions related to the McAfee financial fraud were added to the Fair Fund: Ingram Micro, Eric G. Borrmann, and Terry W. Davis. Settlements in these actions added more than $16 million to the Fair Fund.