Zubar Ali Ghias said the hoax stemmed from a Valentine’s Day fight with his wife.

BANGOR (AP) – An investment banker accused of lying to investigators about being carjacked in Chicago and forced to board a Moroccan-bound flight in New York was released Monday on $50,000 bond.

Zubair Ali Ghias, 27, later admitted to the hoax and said it stemmed from a Valentine’s Day squabble with his pregnant wife, authorities said. He spent the weekend in the Piscataquis County Jail, where he was being held without bail on a charge of making false statements to the FBI.

Ghias and his wife, Jehan Ara Amin, walked hand-in-hand from the federal courthouse without responding to questions from reporters. They were whisked off in a car with other family members to Bangor International Airport, where a chartered plane was waiting to take them back to Chicago.

One of Ghias’ lawyers, Mark Rotert of Chicago, said his client was grateful for the support of his family and was happy to be returning home.

In a brief statement, Rotert said much about the case remains unknown and he urged the public to avoid a “rush to judgment.”

At a brief hearing, Ghias waived a preliminary examination on probable cause and U.S. Magistrate Judge Margaret Kravchuk approved a series of conditions for his release on bail.

They included a restriction on travel outside Illinois and Maine and a ban on air travel other than authorized flights between the two states to attend court proceedings.

In addition, Ghias must surrender his passport and will be required to undergo a mental health evaluation.

Ghias’ bond was secured by the deed to his $270,000 apartment on Chicago’s North Side.

Ghias called his family in Chicago last Thursday and said he was being kidnapped by Arabs and forced to board Royal Air Maroc Flight 201. The Transportation Security Administration diverted the flight to Bangor after learning of a bomb threat, the agency said.

The Boeing 767, with about 90 people aboard, landed in Bangor late last Thursday night, about four hours after taking off from New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport.

No bomb was found, the plane resumed its flight to Casablanca early Friday and officials said passengers and crew were never in danger.

Ghias vanished on Valentine’s Day and his wife filed a missing person two days later. His Range Rover was found the next day, abandoned in Chicago’s South Side.

In an affidavit filed with the court, an FBI investigator recounted Ghias’ story of being kidnapped by an African man, forced to withdraw money from an ATM and later turned over to a group of Arabs who used threats against his family to force him onto the flight.

In a subsequent interview, Ghias admitted that he had had made up the story after a Feb. 14 fight with his wife prompted “the rash decision to travel to New York and get away with everything,” the affidavit said.

Ghias expressed regret for the inconvenience he caused to his family and to authorities, suggesting that his actions may have stemmed from stress-related dementia, his interviewer said.

If convicted of filing the false report, Ghias faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

A second person removed from the flight at Bangor, Ahmed Bhiksi, was identified as a Moroccan who was being deported from the United States.

AP-ES-02-23-04 1540EST