How We Smoothed our Earnings.

The long-awaited numbers from the accounting scandal included an admission that the No. 2 mortgage finance company overstated earnings by almost $1 billion in 2001 and understated profit for 2002, 2000 and earlier periods by more than $6 billion.

Freddie Mac shares rose as much as 4 percent initially but ended the day virtually unchanged as investors looked for closure to the scandal, in which financial results were massaged to show the sort of steady growth Wall Street favors.