Official Who Worked for Now-Jailed Wymer Gets Life Ban From SEC

NEWPORT BEACH —  A former salesman for jailed investment manager Steven D. Wymer has agreed to a lifetime ban on working in the securities industry to settle charges that he helped swindle municipalities across the country out of millions of dollars, Securities and Exchange Commission officials said.

Newport Beach resident James A. Pearce, 49, was accused by the SEC of wrongly pocketing $604,000 in undisclosed commissions while working as marketing director of Wymer’s Newport Beach-based Institutional Treasury Management Inc.

Pearce was ordered to pay $604,000 earlier this month in U.S. District Court, but the SEC waived the penalty after determining that he did not have the means to pay, said Kelly Bowers, an SEC assistant regional director in Los Angeles.

Pearce did not admit or deny the allegations in consenting to the SEC sanction, which bars him from associating with any broker-dealer, municipal securities dealer, investment advisor or investment company. Wymer, currently serving a prison term of more than 14 years, was convicted of nine counts of racketeering, securities fraud, mail fraud, bank fraud and obstruction of justice. From 1987 to 1991, he bilked cities from Orange County to Iowa through an elaborate Ponzi scheme in which he paid off earlier investors with money he received from newer investors. Wymer was also ordered to pay $209 million in restitution to his former clients.

SEC officials said that Pearce prepared and distributed false materials, assured an ITM client that a fraudulent trade was legitimate and helped Wymer overcharge customers in exchange for a cut of the profits.