MEDIA company AOL Time Warner has said the US Securities and Exchange Commission is looking into a series of transactions that may have improperly boosted revenue.

Chief executive Richard Parsons told investors that the SEC was conducting a ''fact-finding'' inquiry into several transactions reported last week.

According to the articles, AOL allowed a British entertainment company to buy advertising instead of paying an arbitration award in a legal dispute, shifted revenue between two divisions and sold ads on behalf of on-line auctioneers eBay while booking the sales as its own revenue.

Mr Parsons said the company's auditors, Ernst & Young, had signed off on all transactions and that they conformed with generally accepted accounting procedures.

SEC spokesman John Heine declined to comment.