The judge's ruling came after an FBI agent testified former National Century Financial Enterprises executives had planned to flee the country on a cruise ship bound for the Caribbean after their fraud convictions.

U.S. District Court Judge Algenon Marbley said former National Century executive James Dierker does not pose a flight risk while he awaits sentencing on his fraud conviction. But three others must now wait in jail for their sentences, expected to be handed down later this year.

Dierker and four other executives were convicted March 13 in what prosecutors said was a scheme to defraud National Century investors. Based in suburban Dublin, the company had called itself the country's largest health care financing company when it collapsed in 2002.

Marbley had allowed the five to remain free pending sentencing. Then one of the executives, Rebecca Parrett, disappeared last month from her Arizona home and an arrest warrant was issued. She remains at large.

A few days later, federal prosecutors alleged the others had plotted to escape to Aruba on a cruise ship and the remaining four, including Dierker, were arrested.

The government based its case on a confidential informant's conversation with National Century founder Lance Poulsen, who occupied a nearby cell while the two were in a Chillicothe jail earlier this year.

Poulsen was convicted last month of trying to bribe a witness to provide favorable testimony. He faces his own trial in the alleged fraud scheme in August.

All four defendants testified before Marbley at a daylong hearing Wednesday, but only Dierker said that not only was there no conspiracy to escape, he had not spoken to Poulsen since 2002.

Marbley said he found that distinction compelling, and noted that the three other defendants, whom he called a "leadership cabal" within the company, only testified that they hadn't participated in a conspiracy.

Marbley also said he found evidence submitted on Dierker's behalf by executives at Victoria's Secret, where Dierker works in marketing, compelling proof that Dierker has work commitments that make it unlikely he would flee.

The three defendants ordered to remain in jail are Roger Faulkenberry of Columbus, Randy Speer of Peachtree City, Ga., and Donald Ayers of Ft. Myers, Fla.

Relatives of Dierker, including his wife and parents, wept with happiness after Marbley's decision. Nearby, relatives of the other three wept with disappointment.

The confidential informant, Robert Cihy, an acknowledged crack cocaine addict and bank robber, took the stand Wednesday to testify about the escape plot.

Cihy said that after he told Poulsen that Poulsen should just take his own ship and sail off, Poulsen told him he had the right idea but wasn't thinking "out of the box" enough.

Poulsen then explained how it was possible to enter a Caribbean island like Aruba without a passport if you sailed on a large cruise ship, said Cihy, under questioning by Frederick Benton, an attorney for Speer.

Poulsen said the disappearance of Parrett "threw a kink in the plan," Cihy testified, saying he was quoting Poulsen. However, during the morning testimony, Cihy did not quote Poulsen as directly saying there was a plot to flee to Aruba.

New rules that would require a passport to travel to the Caribbean on a cruise ship do not go into effect until next year. Passports were required for air travel as of last year.

Poulsen's attorneys deny he knew anything about such a plot and say the only mention of Aruba was speculation relayed to the informant from police, not Poulsen.