Conrad Black, the former Telegraph owner, has been freed from jail in Florida on bail of $2m (£1.3m), but must remain in the US, a federal judge in Chicago ruled today.
Black was released this afternoon from Coleman Federal Correctional Complex, where he has served two years of a six-and-a-half-year sentence for fraud.The judge, Amy St Eve, ordered Black to appear before her in Toronto in line with the full terms of his bail, pending an appeal. Defence lawyers said he could appear on Friday or Monday.
Black's lawyers, pleading for him to be allowed to return to his home in Toronto, portrayed the former media mogul, who was convicted in 2007 of defrauding shareholders of $6.1m, as financially straitened. He had no assets in the US and his finances in Canada were tied up by an injunction relating to another case, they said.
On release, his lawyers argued, he could go to his former mansion in Palm Beach, Florida – though he no longer fully owns it because of lapsed mortgage payments – or to a hotel. In those circumstances, he should be allowed to go back to Canadaand his Toronto home, the lawyers said.
But the prosecution insisted he remain in the US, pending the appeal, and the judge agreed.
The $2m bail was guaranteed by Roger Hertog, a friend and former president and chief executive of Sanford Bernstein, an American financial research firm.
Lawyers for the defence said there was a logistical problem with Black, who was ennobled as Lord Black of Crossharbour in 2001 and could yet resume his seat in the House of Lords, travelling from Florida to Chicago. Identification was needed to board a plane, and Black's ID had expired, they said. His British passport expired in 2009 and he would have to approach the British consulate for a new one.
The judge ruled that he could have a passport, but only for identification purposes, and not for travel.