Wymer Gets 14 Years for Investment Swindle : Courts: The prison term is slightly shorter than what prosecutors had requested. Wymer stole $92 million from clients.

Steven D. Wymer, the former Newport Beach investment adviser who stole $92 million from clients, was sentenced Tuesday to 14 1/2 years in prison for what federal prosecutors said was one of the nation’s biggest and most devastating financial scams.

U.S. District Judge Richard A. Gadbois Jr. in Los Angeles said he was recognizing Wymer’s cooperation with prosecutors and other public officials in sentencing him to a prison term that was slightly shorter than prosecutors had sought.

“Wisdom has come a little late to Mr. Wymer,” the judge said, “but it has come.”

Clad like the three lawyers who accompanied him--in a gray suit and white shirt--Wymer was unemotional as the judge pronounced sentence in quiet, measured tones. However, moments earlier, his voice broke as he addressed the judge.

“I know that my actions were wrong,” Wymer said. “I have no excuses for my actions. I believe I can and will be a contributing member of this society.”

As he left the federal courthouse with his arm around his wife late Tuesday afternoon, Wymer, 45, refused further comment.

In pleading guilty, Wymer had asked for a sentence of less than 10 years. He contends that the government exaggerated the seriousness of his crimes.

Wymer invested more than $1 billion for dozens of cities, most of them in Iowa and California. But he soon began shifting money around to hide trading losses and the millions of dollars he siphoned off to buy vacation homes and vintage cars. Many of the missing millions will never be recovered, prosecutors said.

Meanwhile, some of the cities he defrauded have had to lay off workers, defer building projects and borrow money to pay their bills.

The sentence may be reduced at a subsequent hearing if Wymer continues to cooperate with the criminal investigation. Prosecutors wouldn’t say who is being investigated. But Wymer told a Congressional subcommittee in March that some broker-dealers helped him defraud the cities.

Despite the length of the sentence, the judge told Wymer that he would ask the federal Bureau of Prisons that Wymer do his time in a minimum-security prison camp in Lompoc.

Wymer was ordered to begin serving his sentence July 11. He is still needed for depositions by a Colorado bank he defrauded.

Despite his cooperation with the cities, the judge said, “not one centavo” has been returned.

Wymer agreed to repay the missing $92 million as part of his guilty plea. But everything he owns has been turned over to the government, including luxury cars, houses and art. The government says the assets are worth $9 million, while Wymer’s lawyers say they may be worth as much as $15 million.

The Securities and Exchange Commission pointed out in a letter to the judge urging a lengthy sentence that it took its investigators months to begin to unravel Wymer’s complicated scams before he began to cooperate.

Nevertheless, Assistant U.S. Atty. Jean A. Kawahara said, the government was “satisfied with the sentence. It’s a substantial, significant sentence for white collar crime.” Prosecutors had sought a prison term of 15 1/2 to 19 1/2 years.

Wymer admitted stealing the money from 20 cities in California and Iowa that hired him to invest their money. In September, he pleaded guilty to nine federal charges of racketeering, stock fraud, mail fraud, bank fraud and obstructing justice.

In asking the judge for leniency, Wymer said he never intended to defraud anyone. The entire scheme, he said, started with a single bad trade in 1986 that he tried to cover up. As he shifted funds from one account to another, Wymer said, the amounts began to snowball.

But that argument did not hold water, the government said. In six years, Wymer spent $29 million in clients’ money on himself.

That includes $635,000 from the desert town of La Quinta to buy beachfront property in Florida, $400,000 for a dozen cars, including a new Ferrari, and a $450,000 private plane.