Vincent Lacroix was granted bail for $50,000 on Wednesday, as he awaits trial on nearly 200 criminal charges relating to the defrauding of millions of dollars from people who had their money with the investment firm Norbourg.

He was the president of the firm when more than 9,000 investors were defrauded of $115 million.

The argument

The situation is complex.

Lacroix is still serving an eight and a half year jail sentence after being convicted in 2007 of securities fraud by Quebec's financial watchdog. He has served a sixth of that sentence, and parole for that is supposed to begin soon.

The bail Lacroix was granted on Wednesday was related to the criminal case, which is slated to begin in September. Those charges stem from the same incident.

Lacroix's lawyers argued that, although he has already been found guilty by the securities watchdog, Lacroix has not yet been tried in criminal court and therefore is entitled to the presumption of innocence.

The crown tried to argue that the evidence in the other case should be enough to show Lacroix should not get bail.

The judge sided with Lacroix's lawyers.

Lacroix had to surrender his passport and will be living in a halfway house for the next 18 months.