TORONTO — A Canadian businessman who spent 13 years imprisoned in Bulgaria after being convicted of embezzlement was on his way home Sunday.

Michael Kapoustin, 55, from the Penticton, B.C., area, was released from prison July 3 and was waiting last week for Canadian officials to issue him a new passport.

An email from his Toronto-based lawyer on behalf of the family Sunday said Mr. Kapoustin "has safely left Bulgarian territory and is free."

Conservative MP Jason Kenney said that after examining the case he concluded Mr. Kapoustin did not receive due process, and he met with the Bulgarian prosecutor-general to press for his release.

"I understand from our embassy that he's in good spirits. I think it must be a bit of a shock for him that he's finally getting out," Mr. Kenney told CTV.

"I think he had in some sense given up hope because all of his legal appeals and proceedings there had not borne any fruit."

Mr. Kenney said consular officials worked "very hard" to bring him back to Canada.

Mr. Kapoustin went to Bulgaria with an entrepreneurial spirit after the fall of communism, but soon after he found himself facing allegations of money laundering and embezzlement.

A court found him guilty of embezzling the equivalent of some $4-million in 1994 and 1995 from 2,800 Bulgarian investors in his LifeChoice International investment fund.

Mr. Kapoustin denied the charges, but he was handed a 17-year sentence in the mid-1990s.

He is expected to arrive in Vancouver Sunday evening where he will be reunited with his wife and son.