Torrance Officials Will Meet to Assess Financial Damage : Investments: The city has more than $6 million invested with Steven D. Wymer, who is accused of fraud.

Stunned by the disclosure that more than $6 million in city funds may be missing in a huge investment fraud case, Torrance officials have scheduled a special meeting Friday to discuss the extent of the fiscal fallout.

The city is just one of a number of government agencies, banks, thrifts and other municipalities caught up in a scandal involving the financial empire headed by Steven D. Wymer, which has resulted in the freezing of $1.2 billion in assets from investors in California, 12 other states and Micronesia.

Torrance officials met with Securities and Exchange Commission investigators Wednesday and were told that it is still too early to tell how much money is missing and which accounts the funds are missing from, according to City Atty. Kenneth L. Nelson. However, a federal court receiver said Wednesday that about 40 of the 61 accounts in Wymer’s troubled Irvine-based financial network appear intact.

“At this point we’re all trying to figure it out,” Nelson said. “We assume that the money is just frozen. I have no evidence yet that the money is gone. But if it is, that’s pretty shocking.”

U.S. District Judge Richard A. Gadbois Jr. last week froze the assets of Institutional Treasury Management and Denman & Co. of Irvine after Wymer was charged with fraud in a civil suit by the SEC. Authorities originally said up to $95 million in investors’ money was unaccounted for.

Wymer was arrested at his Newport Beach home Tuesday on federal criminal fraud charges. Prosecutors now say that up to $30 million of the funds Wymer handled remains unaccounted for, possibly including the $6.2-million Torrance investment that was to be used to buy U.S. Treasury bonds.

Many of Wymer’s clients were small cities and counties in California and Iowa, whose officials say they believed their investments were secure because Wymer was investing in U.S. Treasury bonds and other government instruments.

Torrance City Treasurer Thomas C. Rupert told The Times last week that he was assured by federal investigators that the city’s money was safe in a sealed account.

Rupert, who did not return phone calls Wednesday, told the City Council that he is confident that Torrance will get its money back.

“Tom said . . . there was an agreement with this guy (Wymer) that no investment could be made without Tom’s approval,” Mayor Katy Geissert said. “He had all the paperwork on the investments and knew exactly where the money was.”

The criminal complaint alleges that Wymer had been diverting clients’ money from accounts he managed through his two companies. But neither federal prosecutors nor the SEC have disclosed what Wymer is alleged to have done with the missing money.

Torrance officials set the special meeting for Friday afternoon after a hearing in U.S. District Court in which Gadbois will consider lifting the freeze on some assets.

City Atty. Nelson said Torrance financial officers will do all they can to assist SEC investigators in tracking down the city’s money.

“Our biggest concern right now is that the money won’t be there,” he said. “Our second-biggest concern is that if it’s gone, it would force us to liquidate some of our longer-term investments. And that’s not something we really want to do.”