People who said they fell ill after hundreds of tons of waste were dumped in 2006 began receiving compensation checks of $1,500 each Wednesday following a legal battle over how the money would be distributed. Oil-trading company Trafigura Beheer BV had paid roughly $46 million in compensation to London-based law firm Leigh Day & Co., which was supposed to distribute the money to the victims last fall. However, a local victims association sued and won control of the payments…Trafigura has said it does not accept legal liability for the incident as the dumping was carried out by a local contractor that acted independently of Trafigura.