BECKLEY, W.Va. — A federal judge lowered the bond of former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship by $4 million and lifted his travel restrictions following his conviction of conspiring to break mine safety laws.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Clarke VanDervort in Beckley reduced Blankenship’s bond from $5 million to $1 million on Monday.
Blankenship will also be allowed to travel freely through the United States. His limitations to travel only to southern West Virginia, Pike County, Kentucky and Washington, D.C. were dropped. VanDervort said this will allow Blankenship to move back home to Las Vegas.
Earlier this month, Blankenship was found guilty of one of three counts he was on trial for at the federal courthouse in Charleston. He was convicted Dec. 3 of a misdemeanor charge for skirting safety standards at the Upper Big Branch Mine in Raleigh County. That site is where 29 miners were killed in an explosion back in 2010.
He is scheduled to be sentenced in March 2016 and faces up to one year in federal prison.