Disgraced former press baron Conrad Black was released from a Florida prison on Friday after ending his sentence but he was immediately taken into custody by U.S. immigration officials.
"He is in ICE custody," said Nestor Yglesias, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Yglesias declined to elaborate but spoke after a vehicle believed to be carrying the 67-year-old Black was spotted by photographers at about 8:20 a.m. EDT leaving the low security Federal Correctional Institution in Miami, where he was serving his sentence.
His release from the facility Friday morning had been widely expected but authorities had previously indicated he would also face deportation from the United States after he was freed.
A U.S. judge in June re-sentenced Black, a Canadian-born British citizen and member of Britain's House of Lords, to another 13 months in prison on top of the 29 months he had already served for his 2007 conviction for fraud and obstruction of justice.
A federal jury had found Black guilty of scheming with partner David Radler and other executives to siphon off millions of dollars in proceeds from the sale of newspapers as they unwound Hollinger International, once the world's third-largest publisher of English-language newspapers.
It operated the Chicago Sun-Times, the Jerusalem Post, London's Daily Telegraph and dozens of other newspapers.
Black was released from prison in July 2010 while his case was under appeal, which resulted in two of his three fraud convictions being voided and a shortening of his original 78-month sentence. After the appeal, he returned to prison in September 2011.
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