Jailed Bermuda director Paul Lemmon has been denied bail by a Florida court, according to a report by InsideBermuda.

Mr. Lemmon, managing director of the Voyager Group of Companies, has been held in Palm Beach in pretrial detention since his arrest on charges of alleged securities fraud in August.

Mr. Lemmon, a Canadian national who lived in Bermuda since the early 1990s, was arrested along with two other directors of Bermuda companies - American Andrew Proctor and Canadian Mark Valentine - after a two-year undercover sting operation by the US Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). Mr. Proctor and Mr. Valentine have both been released on bail, but all three men, if convicted, could face, at a maximum, statutory terms of imprisonment of five years for conspiracy to commit securities fraud, wire fraud and mail fraud respectively and ten years for securities fraud.

InsideBermuda, a Web-based monthly newsletter, reported last week that it had obtained court papers that showed Mr. Lemmon had been held on remand after the judge ruled there was a "serious risk" that he would flee or obstruct justice if granted bail.

The court documents show that magistrate Judge Ann E. Vitunac, in an order dated August 22, said the FBI had more than 200 tapes relating to the indictments.

"Defendant is recorded in the vast majority of those tapes," she said, and added that in one tape Lemmon was "recorded on tape discussing `second passports', the objective of which is to obtain a new identity", the Judge said.

Bail was reportedly denied Mr. Lemmon despite his willingness to surrender his Canadian passport, sign a waiver of extradition and offers from both his wife and father to pledge property as security.

InsideBermuda reported that the Judge ruled in that regard: "These offers are not compelling given the inherent difficulty of seizing property located outside of the United States.

"This Court has no jurisdiction over the probation office in Canada."