WorldCom Inc.'s meltdown has wiped away at least $260 million in value from the retirement pension funds of Tristate teachers and government employees.

        Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana's public pension funds are among several major public retirement systems that own large stakes of WorldCom stock and bonds, which dissolved into near-worthlessness this week.

        “It won't have any effect on anybody's secure retirement or benefits,” said Linda Lewis, spokeswoman for the 500,000-member Ohio Public Employees Retirement System. “But you hate to lose it, obviously.”

        Ohio PERS, which has assets of $52 billion, lost $146 million in WorldCom stock and $60 million in bonds.

        WorldCom disclosed this week that it hid $3.8 billion in expenses from its investors. That meant the company reported a profit when it actually might have lost hundreds of millions of dollars. The government has charged the company with fraud.

        WorldCom shares closed at 83 cents Tuesday, before the company's disclosure late that evening. The stock hit a high of $62 a share in June 1999. It has lost 94 percent of its value this year.

        The accounting trickery follows other allegations of corporate misdeeds at a growing list of once respected firms — Enron, Tyco, Global Crossing, ImClone, Adelphia.

        According to governmental filings compiled by Bloomberg News, several public pension funds from California to New York collectively owned more than 3 percent of WorldCom's outstanding stock. Most also had several million in bonds.

        • New York's state pension fund, the second-largest in the nation, has lost about $300 million in value because of its WorldCom investments.

        • The California Public Employees Retirement System, the nation's largest, estimated its loss if it were to sell its holdings today at $565 million.

        Still, spokesman Brad Pacheco said that was a relatively small for a fund worth $150 billion.

        Pension funds for Kentucky teachers and government workers invested about $58.1 million in WorldCom's stock and bonds — holdings that fell by $52.3 million this week.

        Stuart Reagan, chief investment officer of the Kentucky Teachers' Retirement System, said the pension funds have no plans to sell the WorldCom investments to lock in the loss.

        “There's some dim prospect that the company's prospects will improve,” Mr. Reagan said.

        Indiana Public Employees' Retirement Fund had a $13 million investment in WorldCom. It was unclear Thursday how much the pension fund lost.

        The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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