Conrad Black, the ex-newspaper publisher indicted for racketeering and fraud, avoided being sent to jail for breaching the terms of his $20 million bail agreement when a federal judge ordered him to submit more assets.

Prosecutors last week sought the possible revocation of bail after Mr. Black allegedly misled them about the value of the Florida home he posted as collateral. Yesterday, U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve told defense attorney Edward Genson to fulfill an earlier promise to sell the home and Mr. Black’s stake in a company he owns with co-defendant David Radler.

“If everything works as you describe it, that satisfies the court’s objective,” Judge St. Eve told Mr. Genson during yesterday’s hearing in Chicago federal court. The judge asked Mr. Genson to produce a new financial statement from his client by June 30, when the next hearing in the case is scheduled.

Mr. Black’s Palm Beach home, valued by his lawyers at $32 million, was in fact in danger of foreclosure, prosecutors said in court papers. Mr. Black didn’t reveal that he’d defaulted on a $10 million mortgage and understated the $8.9 million tax lien Canadian authorities had obtained on the residence, they said.

Mr. Black, 61, former chairman of Hollinger International Inc., is accused in a federal indictment of enriching himself and associates at shareholders’ expense. Hollinger is a minority shareholder of The New York Sun.

Charged last November, Mr. Black was allowed to remain free on $20 million bail backed by the equity in his Palm Beach home and $8.5 million in net proceeds from the sale of his Park Avenue apartment in Manhattan.In court papers filed June 22, Mr. Genson said that while Mr. Black had defaulted on his Palm Beach mortgage, he was in negotiations with the lender, a stance he reiterated today.Prosecutors asked the court for an order directing the sale of that property and an escrow of the net proceeds.

The government has complained that Mr. Black hasn’t been candid about the state of his finances. Mr. Genson told Judge St. Eve that Horizon Operations Ltd., the Canadian company Mr. Black owns with Mr. Radler, would purchase Mr. Black’s $16 million stake. Radler, the former publisher of the Chicago Sun-Times, has pleaded guilty to fraud and agreed to cooperate with the Justice Department.

At today’s hearing, lawyers also argued over the fate of $5.8 million being held in escrow for Mr. Black by a Chicago law firm. Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Sussman told Judge St. Eve that that money, which had collateralized a Black business obligation, should be paid over to the court as additional bail. Mr. Genson proposed that the funds be used to pay down the defaulted mortgage on the Palm Beach home.

Judge St. Eve told Mr. Genson to have the money transferred to his escrow account until she ruled on the issue and ordered Mr. Black, who wasn’t at the hearing, to put the Palm Beach house up for sale as promised in Mr. Black’s original bail agreement.