Passport racketeer walks free from relative lap of luxury

Disgraced US Consulate official Jerry Stuchiner walked free yesterday - and this is the 'informant class' ICAC cell he vacated.

Mr Stuchiner, 45, former chief of the US Immigration and Naturalisation Service in the territory, was led from his three-by-four-metre Resident Informant's Cell and reportedly looked healthier than before he went into Independent Commission Against Corruption custody.

The cell where he has been held since February after his conviction on charges linked to a fake passport racket, was opened up as the ICAC allowed a rare glimpse into their Operations Department.

Ordinary corruption detainees are offered a degree of comfort - their two-by-three-metre cells boast spartan toilets and sinks, furniture, and dimmer light switches.

Mr Stuchiner, and others like him who provide anti-graft agents with 'extra information', get that and more on the 10th floor of the commission's Murray Road car park building. They get more space and furniture, their own shower and a comfortable chair.

Mr Stuchiner is understood to have helped with an investigation into his former Immigration and Naturalisation Service boss, James DeBates.