Wymer Bail Set at $600,000, Plus Strings : Courts: Wary judge orders stiff terms for release of Newport Beach money manager accused of multimillion-dollar fraud. Meanwhile, case keeps growing.

A federal judge Thursday set bail of $600,000 for Newport Beach investment adviser Steven D. Wymer but ordered stiff conditions, including electronic surveillance, to ensure that the 43-year-old money manager does not flee.

But even as Wymer’s lawyers were trying to arrange his release as early as today, prosecutors said they have uncovered new evidence that Wymer’s alleged securities swindle was much broader than originally believed and said they would probably bring additional criminal charges against him.

In court documents, prosecutors alleged that Wymer made hundreds of fictitious trades with his clients’ money beginning in 1986 and “boldly and brazenly stole over $113 million directly from victim client accounts,” taxpayer money belonging to dozens of cities, counties and other small government agencies in California, Colorado and Iowa.

“The defendant had the money in the accounts,” Assistant U.S. Atty. James R. Asperger said. “He in effect stole it, and the amount of the losses are enormous.” Wymer has pleaded not guilty to 30 counts of securities fraud, mail fraud, money laundering, obstruction of justice and other federal criminal charges that carry maximum penalties of 275 years in prison and $140 million in fines.

Wymer’s lawyers say the money was lost though bad investments. Prosecutors say there is no evidence to support that claim, since Wymer had allegedly removed files, forged trading documentation or hidden documents that would shed light on his tangled financial web.

Asperger, arguing that Wymer should not be released on bail, said that since the Securities and Exchange Commission first questioned him in October, Wymer had made bank withdrawals and liquidated assets worth at least $1.5 million, including a private jet, a Porsche, at least one boat and some of his classic car collection. Wymer also put some real estate in his wife’s maiden name and put other property into trust, destroyed documents and had an employee move a boat from Newport Beach to a Wymer vacation home in Idaho, Asperger alleged.

But U.S. District Judge Richard A. Gadbois Jr. rejected prosecution arguments that Wymer might run off with the missing $113 million or pose an economic danger to his community.

“He’s not a danger to the community because they probably wouldn’t let him into lunch at the Newport Harbor Yacht Club, let alone give him money,” Gadbois said

The defense argued that Wymer knew that he was almost certain to face criminal charges and had ample opportunity to flee before his Dec. 17 arrest.

Instead, Wymer sold for $350,000 a private jet that could have been used to escape and stayed at home in Newport Beach, one of Wymer’s four attorneys, James D. Riddet of Santa Ana, argued.

The judge agreed that Wymer was unlikely to run, noting tartly: “If he had $100 million squirreled away in a bank account in one of the homes in the Caribbean or Switzerland, he had the chance to get out of town. He even had an airplane that would take him. . . . He didn’t do it.”

On Dec. 12, the SEC charged Wymer with fraud in a civil suit, and Gadbois froze all of Wymer’s personal and business assets. On Wednesday, federal agents began seizing up to $15 million of Wymer’s personal property, alleging that it represented ill-gotten gains from a securities swindle.

Wymer has told investigators that he earned $4 million last year and had a net worth of $22 million, according to court documents.

Wymer was born in Fullerton, graduated from Fullerton High School and UC Irvine and had lived in Orange County for all but 10 years during the 1970s, which he spent in Colorado and Europe. Except for an arrest in 1981 on a debtor judgment, in which Wymer was found in contempt of court, he has had no brushes with the law, Riddet said.

Gadbois said he was swayed by the appearance in court of Wymer’s parents, Ruth and Ted Wymer, his 29-year-old wife, Ann Marie, his 20-year-old daughter, an uncle, an aunt, a cousin and a friend, and by promises by at least four of the relatives to stake their homes on Wymer’s appearance.

“If Mr. Wymer were to run out on these people and leave them holding the bag, he would face a very irate judge and face a very irate family, and if he is that insensitive, then he deserves what he would get,” the judge said, adding, “I don’t have a book heavy enough to throw at him.”

Gadbois set bail at $600,000--$100,000 more than a court study recommended. “I want the conditions of supervision as stringent as they can be,” Gadbois added. “I want electronic monitoring, I want daily monitoring. I want him to be here.”

Ted Wymer said he thought his son’s $600,00 bail was “very fair and at least gives us a chance to unravel this further. We’re here to show support.”

Wymer’s lawyers had previously argued that Wymer could not prepare an adequate defense when he was behind bars, unable to review the relevant documents that had been seized by the SEC and the U.S. attorney’s office.

They noted that such notorious figures as arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi and Charles H. Keating Jr., former owner of Irvine-based Lincoln Savings & Loan, whose collapse is estimated to cost taxpayers $2.6 billion, were granted bail.

But Khashoggi, who wore an electronic monitor while awaiting trial, was charged with only two felonies and forced to post a $10-million bond, prosecutors said in court papers. And bail was set for Keating only after he was required to identify his personal assets under penalty of perjury, they said.

In further sparring, Wymer’s team said Thursday that the government had some of its facts wrong.

Asperger told the judge that Wymer attempted to withdraw $105,000 from his account at Wells Fargo Bank shortly before his arrest, but the bank refused because of the court-ordered freeze. Wymer’s attorneys said the incident never happened.

Asperger also told the judge that Ann Marie Wymer this week attempted to sell a 1991 Mercedes-Benz 500SEL, worth more than $70,000, to a Mission Viejo dealer, one of 23 alleged attempts to liquidate assets.

“The car was my own car in my own name and it was not frozen,” she said after the hearing.

However, the attorneys would not comment on the substance of the fraud charges or on the evidence against Wymer.

Asperger, arguing that Wymer should not be released on bail, said that since the Securities and Exchange Commission first questioned him in October, Wymer had made bank withdrawals and liquidated assets worth at least $1.5 million, including a private jet, a Porsche, at least one boat and some of his classic car collection. Wymer also put some real estate in his wife’s maiden name and put other property into trust, destroyed documents and had an employee move a boat from Newport Beach to a Wymer vacation home in Idaho, Asperger alleged.

But U.S. District Judge Richard A. Gadbois Jr. rejected prosecution arguments that Wymer might run off with the missing $113 million or pose an economic danger to his community.

“He’s not a danger to the community because they probably wouldn’t let him into lunch at the Newport Harbor Yacht Club, let alone give him money,” Gadbois said

The defense argued that Wymer knew that he was almost certain to face criminal charges and had ample opportunity to flee before his Dec. 17 arrest.

Instead, Wymer sold for $350,000 a private jet that could have been used to escape and stayed at home in Newport Beach, one of Wymer’s four attorneys, James D. Riddet of Santa Ana, argued.

The judge agreed that Wymer was unlikely to run, noting tartly: “If he had $100 million squirreled away in a bank account in one of the homes in the Caribbean or Switzerland, he had the chance to get out of town. He even had an airplane that would take him. . . . He didn’t do it.”

On Dec. 12, the SEC charged Wymer with fraud in a civil suit, and Gadbois froze all of Wymer’s personal and business assets. On Wednesday, federal agents began seizing up to $15 million of Wymer’s personal property, alleging that it represented ill-gotten gains from a securities swindle.

Wymer has told investigators that he earned $4 million last year and had a net worth of $22 million, according to court documents.

Wymer was born in Fullerton, graduated from Fullerton High School and UC Irvine and had lived in Orange County for all but 10 years during the 1970s, which he spent in Colorado and Europe. Except for an arrest in 1981 on a debtor judgment, in which Wymer was found in contempt of court, he has had no brushes with the law, Riddet said.

Gadbois said he was swayed by the appearance in court of Wymer’s parents, Ruth and Ted Wymer, his 29-year-old wife, Ann Marie, his 20-year-old daughter, an uncle, an aunt, a cousin and a friend, and by promises by at least four of the relatives to stake their homes on Wymer’s appearance.

“If Mr. Wymer were to run out on these people and leave them holding the bag, he would face a very irate judge and face a very irate family, and if he is that insensitive, then he deserves what he would get,” the judge said, adding, “I don’t have a book heavy enough to throw at him.”

Gadbois set bail at $600,000--$100,000 more than a court study recommended. “I want the conditions of supervision as stringent as they can be,” Gadbois added. “I want electronic monitoring, I want daily monitoring. I want him to be here.”

Ted Wymer said he thought his son’s $600,00 bail was “very fair and at least gives us a chance to unravel this further. We’re here to show support.”

Wymer’s lawyers had previously argued that Wymer could not prepare an adequate defense when he was behind bars, unable to review the relevant documents that had been seized by the SEC and the U.S. attorney’s office.

They noted that such notorious figures as arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi and Charles H. Keating Jr., former owner of Irvine-based Lincoln Savings & Loan, whose collapse is estimated to cost taxpayers $2.6 billion, were granted bail.

But Khashoggi, who wore an electronic monitor while awaiting trial, was charged with only two felonies and forced to post a $10-million bond, prosecutors said in court papers. And bail was set for Keating only after he was required to identify his personal assets under penalty of perjury, they said.

In further sparring, Wymer’s team said Thursday that the government had some of its facts wrong.

Asperger told the judge that Wymer attempted to withdraw $105,000 from his account at Wells Fargo Bank shortly before his arrest, but the bank refused because of the court-ordered freeze. Wymer’s attorneys said the incident never happened.

Asperger also told the judge that Ann Marie Wymer this week attempted to sell a 1991 Mercedes-Benz 500SEL, worth more than $70,000, to a Mission Viejo dealer, one of 23 alleged attempts to liquidate assets.

“The car was my own car in my own name and it was not frozen,” she said after the hearing.

However, the attorneys would not comment on the substance of the fraud charges or on the evidence against Wymer.