WASHINGTON (AFP) - Thousands of individual investors who lost money in the WorldCom collapse are set to receive up to 150 million dollars from a special compensation fund, US regulators said.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said in a statement that defrauded investors would start receiving compensation payouts from the fund immediately.

The fund was set up to compensate investors around the world who lost money due to a complex accounting scam perpetrated by senior executives at the defunct telecommunications group.

The 2002 implosion of WorldCom marked America's biggest corporate collapse.

"This most recent success of the Fair Funds process will play an important role in encouraging investors to continue to place trust in America's capital markets," SEC chairman Christopher Cox said.

Investors in 110 countries made nearly 450,000 claims to the SEC-administered fund related to approximately 9.4 million transactions in WorldCom securities.

The initial 150-million-dollar distribution covers claims processed to date, including most of those filed by individual investors.

What was left of WorldCom emerged as MCI, which was bought by Verizon Communications last year for over eight billion dollars.

Former WorldCom chief executive Bernard Ebbers began a 25-year jail term last month for his role in the 11-billion-dollar fraud that led to the collapse of his telecom empire.

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