The Career Education Corporation, which operates American InterContinental University and dozens of other for-profit colleges, announced today that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission had formally closed an investigation into the company and had taken no action against it.

Career Education disclosed the investigation in 2004, and company executives later said they believed that it had been triggered by allegations that student records had been falsified at its institutions.

In a written statement, the company’s president and chief executive, Gary E. McCullough, said the SEC’s decision had cleared another significant regulatory matter facing Career Education. “We are pleased to receive this positive news for the company,” said Mr. McCullough.

In December a regional accreditor, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, removed American InterContinental from probation status. Earlier the U.S. Department of Education lifted a companywide freeze on new campuses that it had imposed, and the Department of Justice announced that it had closed an investigation of its own, with no action being taken. —Goldie Blumenstyk