The former head of the Ulster Scots Agency has had his sentence increased on appeal.
Prosecutors appealed the leniency of the 21-month sentence handed down to Stan Mallon after he was found guilty of arranging a meeting with a 14-year-old girl with a view to having sex.
He was arrested in March 2002 in Chicago on his way to a White House function. The girl he contacted through an Internet chat room was part of an FBI sting.
Mallon was due for release last Wednesday but just minutes before boarding a plane home he was re-arrested and returned to prison.
The case has now been sent back to the trial judge with an instruction to increase the sentence. Prosecutors are seeking an increase to between 41 and 51 months.
Mallon, who is in his 60s, was a civil servant and acting chief executive of the Ulster Scots Agency until his arrest in March 2002 in Chicago.
His lawyers argued at during the trial that jailing Mallon would damage his already fragile health.
Mallon's wife, told the Belfast Telegraphtoday: "He has serious health problems and the way he has been treated is disgraceful."