By M. Scott Carter

Transcript Staff Writer

OKLAHOMA CITY — A Norman lawmaker is trying to pull the legislative equivalent of a quarterback sneak to reroute more than $11 million in settlement funds back to the state agencies who originally lost the money.

Norman state Sen. John Sparks, a Democrat, confirmed this week he would try to amend Senate Bill 1868 to earmark $11.7 million in WorldCom settlement funds back to the state retirement systems who originally lost the money.

“The money is in the wrong place,” Sparks said Thursday afternoon. “The money is available as a direct result of the WorldCom settlement. It represents some of what was lost by the agencies who invested in WorldCom.”

Under Sparks’ amendment, the funds — which are under the control of the Oklahoma Department of Commerce — would be shifted back to the various retirement systems who lost money in the WorldCom bankruptcy.

Sparks said his amendment would allocate:

• $4.3 million for the Oklahoma Public Employees Retirement System.

• $2.8 million for the Teachers Retirement System.

• $1.7 million for firefighters retirement.

• $1 million for police officers.

The funds should be returned, Sparks said, because the agencies are “actually the victims of a crime.”

“It’s the principle of the matter,” he said. “The money was lost from our retirement system and now some of that money has been recovered. It should go back to the retirement system.”

As part of a $650 million settlement, Oklahoma received the funds following a lawsuit by Attorney General Drew Edmondson. More than 32 such suits were filed by various companies and public retirement funds against WorldCom over investments which were made between 1998 and 2001.

WorldCom — which had assets in excess of $100 billion — filed for bankruptcy protection in July 2002 leaving all of Oklahoma’s public pension systems and a handful of state agencies with heavy financial losses.