Retirement officials eye WorldCom settlement

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Aug 17, 2007 by Jeff Packham

OKLAHOMA CITY - The Oklahoma Public Employees Retirement System Board of Trustees took action to attempt to retrieve a share of lost investments on Thursday by adopting a resolution calling on state government leaders to send the money to the agencies that originally lost it.

Approximately $11.7 million has been deposited into an account with the Oklahoma Department of Commerce after an agreement between Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson and Verizon Communications, which took over the now-bankrupt WorldCom.

The board voted to allow each state agency or retirement system that lost money through WorldCom investments to gain their share of those revenues. Director Tom Spencer said the state initially showed losses of over $66 million with OPERS responsible for $25 million of that money.

"It just seemed to make sense to me those funds should be sent back to the systems pro rata," Spencer said.

The system has already gained back an estimated $5 million to $6 million from various sources such as a victim's trust and the Securities and Exchange Commission's lawsuit. The Oklahoma civil lawsuit was the only one filed by a state attorney general and was settled in 2004 after having been filed in 2003.

The Oklahoma Public Employees Association has already called for those revenues to be returned to the agencies that had lost money. State House Appropriations and Budget Chairman Chris Benge, R- Tulsa, also called on the money to be sent to the retirement systems.

Leslie Blair, a spokesperson for the Commerce Department, said the agency intended to not use the money until a final decision had been made by state officials as to who should spend the money.