NEW YORK (Bloomberg) — American International Group Inc. investors will receive $843 million as part of a settlement of Securities and Exchange Commission claims the insurer, now under US control, committed accounting fraud from 2000 to 2005.

Cheques will be mailed in the next few months to more than 257,000 AIG investors, the SEC said in a statement yesterday. The payout stems from allegations the New York-based company materially falsified financial statements through sham transactions and entities. AIG consented to a 2006 federal court judgment in the case without admitting or denying wrongdoing and paid $800 million.

"The return of these funds to harmed investors is another example of our determined effort to protect investors from those who engage in corporate malfeasance," James Clarkson, acting director of the SEC's New York office, said in the statement.

The so-called fair funds provisions of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act granted the SEC increased authority to distribute civil penalties and ill-gotten gains to investors. The SEC has returned more than $5 billion in fair funds, the Washington-based regulator said.

AIG has received four US bailouts, valued at $182.5 billion, since agreeing in September to turn over a majority stake to the government. The US rescue of AIG includes an investment of as much as $70 billion in preferred stock and warrants, $52.5 billion of US purchases of assets owned or backed by the insurer and a $60 billion credit line.