When U.S. District Court Judge Joseph H. Rodriguez, of Camden, N.J., ordered Lyndhurst, N.J., lawyers and spouses Alfred Porro Jr. and Joan Porro into custody on Oct. 12, he said that they posed a flight risk.

Prosecutors said that the couple had been caught trying to replace passports seized by the government and stood to make $15 million from the sale of a parcel of land in the New Jersey Meadowlands that could fund their getaway.