Edmondson originally settled the fraud charges with WorldCom with an agreement to create 1,600 jobs in Oklahoma. However, those jobs never materialized and, in 2007, an $11.7 million settlement was reached in lieu of the jobs with Verizon Communications, WorldCom’s successor company.

Since the payment of that settlement, the $11.7 million has been parked in an account controlled by the Department of Commerce.

And while many legislative leaders originally agreed those funds should go back to the state’s various retirement systems, some of those lawmakers have now changed their position, Sparks said.

“I think we have an uphill fight,” he said. “I had to do an amendment to get it out of committee. Many people want to sweep this under the rug, they want to use it for other things. The only problem is it was specifically lost from retirement funds, and some was recovered. I believe that money should be returned.”

In August 2007, then-House Appropriation Chair Chris Benge agreed.

Late last summer, Benge issued a media statement saying that “money received from a settlement agreement from the WorldCom accounting fraud should be placed in state employee retirement systems.”

Benge’s statement drew praise from the Oklahoma Public Employees Association.

Benge, the OPEA said, “has shown outstanding leadership regarding this issue. We, as an association, owe him a great deal of thanks.”

Since then things have changed.

Benge is now House Speaker and the state’s budget developed a $117 million leak. Both of those problems have sent retirement system officials scrambling to protect the settlement funds.

Tom Spencer, executive director of the Oklahoma Public Employees Retirement System, said the money should be returned to OPERS because it and the state’s other retirement system, were the original victims.

“We heard the state had settled for $11.7 million. What caught our attention was the funds landed at the Commerce Department,” he said. “And commerce was thinking about how to spend it. We were sorta the victims of the crime, as you will, we thought it more appropriate that those funds come back to us.”

Spencer said state retirement systems lost more than $66 million in the WorldCom bankruptcy and his fund alone lost more than $25 million.

“We have received some funds over the past couple of years,” Spencer said. “But we are nowhere near whole.”

And though some lawmakers downplay the settlement as “a drop in the bucket” when compared to the $8 billion in assets of the Teachers Retirement System, Spencer said his agency’s share — about $4.3 million — would cover his operational costs for a year.