A former deputy secretary of education under President Bush has agreed to pay $50,000 for breaking conflict-of-interest rules by failing to sell off hundreds of shares of Bank of America stock during his tenure, according to a settlement announced today by the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.

The former official, Eugene W. Hickok, served as under secretary and then deputy secretary in the Education Department from 2001 to 2005. After emphasizing standards as Pennsylvania’s secretary of education, he was a central figure during Mr. Bush’s first term in pushing colleges to be more accountable for their graduation rates.

When Mr. Hickok was nominated to be deputy secretary, in early 2004, the department’s ethics officials asked him and his wife to divest any stocks they owned in banks that participated in federal student-loan programs. At the time, the couple held shares in several of those banks, including Wachovia, Citigroup, and Bank of America.

Mr. Hickok repeatedly told investigators that he and his wife had sold all of their bank stocks, but in fact he kept 868 shares of Bank of America stock. The holding constituted the deputy secretary’s single greatest asset filed on his personal income forms, according to the settlement, and from 2004 until he left the department, in February 2005, the stocks appreciated in value considerably.

After a federal investigation, Mr. Hickok agreed to pay a $50,000 fine. The settlement releases him from further liability. He now works as a senior policy director for the education arm of a lobbying firm, Dutko Worldwide.