Waste Management Charges Settled

Two former Waste Management Inc. executives agreed to pay a total of $4.2 million to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges they sold stock while misleading investors about earnings.

The SEC alleged that in 1999, then-President Rodney Proto and then-Chief Financial Officer Earl DeFrates made false or misleading statements about Waste Management stock and sold shares while knowing the company’s earnings were inflated.

Securities regulators said Proto and DeFrates misled investors by failing to disclose that the trash company’s income in the first quarter of 1999 included several nonrecurring items. The one-time items inflated its earnings per share by 9 cents, or 17%.