Wymer Out of Jail but Far From Free on $600,000 Bail

Investment adviser Steven D. Wymer was released from jail Thursday on $600,000 bail but will remain under virtual house arrest at his Newport Beach home, wearing an electronic ankle band to ensure that he does not flee.

“He’s glad to be out and is looking forward to a quiet evening at home with his wife and family,” said Wymer’s attorney, Mark S. Roberts.

Wymer had been held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles since his Dec. 17 arrest in connection with an alleged securities swindle that has cost municipal taxpayers in three states an estimated $113 million.

The 43-year-old millionaire money manager has pleaded not guilty to 30 counts of securities fraud, money laundering, obstruction of justice and other offenses.

His lawyers have said that Wymer lost clients’ money trading U.S. government securities but have declined to elaborate.

At a bail hearing last week, U.S. District Judge Richard A. Gabois Jr. ordered the strictest possible monitoring to ensure that Wymer appears for trial, telling bail monitors to “be all over him like a cheap suit.”

The ankle bracelet Wymer will wear is about the size of a cigarette pack, and can be worn unnoticed under a sock, authorities said. It is waterproof, tamper-proof and will set off alarms if Wymer strays more than 150 feet from a transmitter-receiver that is installed next to his telephone.

Wymer will be required to call authorities daily, visit them in person twice weekly and obtain their permission before leaving home for any reason, Roberts said.

Wymer’s father, mother, aunt, uncle and a friend and investor all pledged their homes to secure the bail because Wymer’s personal and corporate assets have been either frozen or seized in a federal forfeiture action.

Wymer is also the target of civil suits by the federal Securities and Exchange Commission and several of the California cities that appear to have lost a total of $45 million that had been invested with him.