Media executive David Radler has begun serving a 29-month sentence for fraud, secured in a plea bargain for testifying against his former friend and associate, Conrad Black.
The U.S. Bureau of Prisons said Mr. Radler surrendered himself at the Moshannon Valley prison in Pennsylvania at 11:30 a.m. ET, but didn't release any further details.
"He is in our custody," said spokeswoman Felicia Ponce.
Mr. Radler, now inmate 18189-424, will have been fingerprinted, given a medical and mental evaluation and searched as soon as he was admitted.
Judge Amy St. Eve had recommended Mr. Radler serve his sentence at Moshannon, as requested by his lawyers, when she upheld the 2005 plea bargain in December.
The prison is operated by Cornell Cos. Inc., a Texas-based private corrections company, and houses up to 1,300 low-security "specialized populations like sentenced criminal aliens," according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.
Security measures include double fences with razor wire, 24-hour patrol and cameras, but the prison also offers several educational and rehabilitation programs to help prepare inmates to return to their communities.
Mr. Radler is expected to apply for a transfer to a Canadian prison shortly after entering the U.S. system.
His lawyer, Anton Valukas, had remained relatively quiet on the possible transfer, but said after the sentencing hearing that he "would try to have him in a facility that is closer to his home" in Vancouver.
He said at the time that Mr. Radler chose Moshannon because "it's a facility which, I'm told, [hosts]other Canadians and it's a good facility."
Mr. Valukas wasn't immediately available for comment Monday.
Mr. Radler, 65, was granted a more lenient sentence for testifying against Lord Black and three other executives in a four-month trial last year involving deals made by the former Hollinger newspaper empire.
Next week, Lord Black is slated to begin his own 61/2-year sentence for fraud and obstruction of justice convictions in the United States.
His lawyers fiercely attacked Mr. Radler during the four-month trial and accused him of lying about Lord Black's role in the fraud scheme to secure his deal with prosecutors.
While Moshannon is a low-security jail, the two prisons closest to Mr. Radler's home are the Ferndale Institution, a minimum-security prison, and William Head Prison, which has maintained grounds and until recently included a miniature golf course.
The transfer would need approval by the Canadian and U.S. governments and, because of Canadian rules, could result in a sentence of as little as six months for Mr. Radler.
Mr. Radler apologized for his actions at his sentencing hearing, saying "I will live my life with this, and I'm sorry for what I've done."