A lawyer says the 91-year-old founder of a company that grew into one of America's biggest cable television companies has been released from a Pennsylvania prison.
Attorney Christie Callahan said John Rigas left a federal prison on Monday. Manhattan Judge Kimba Wood signed a release order Friday after prosecutors said Rigas had less than six months to live because his bladder cancer had spread to his lungs.
Callahan says he is returning to his home in Couldersport, Pennsylvania. She says the town has planned a celebration for him.
Rigas founded Adelphia. It was once the nation's fifth-largest cable company with more than 5 million subscribers in 31 states and Puerto Rico.
He was serving a 12-year sentence after his conviction in a $1.9 billion looting and debt-hiding scandal.
