P.M. Briefing : British Tycoon Must Post Bail

Asil Nadir, who recently ranked as one of Britain’s richest people, was ordered to post bail of 2 million British pounds ($3.9 million) today on charges of theft and false accounting stemming from the collapse of his Polly Peck conglomerate.

Nadir, arrested Saturday when he returned from a business trip to Turkey, was given until Jan. 28 to provide the cash.

The court also requested guarantees totaling 1.5 million pounds ($2.9 million) and ordered Nadir to surrender his passport and report daily to police.

Nadir, a Turkish Cypriot-born businessman, built Polly Peck, which has interests ranging from fruit to electronics, into a spectacular stock market success before its collapse three months ago. With debts estimated at 1.3 billion pounds ($2.5 billion), Polly Peck was taken over by court-appointed administrators in October, a British form of bankruptcy.