A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the early release from prison of former WorldCom CEO Bernie Ebbers — mastermind of one of the biggest accounting frauds in history — citing his increasingly dire medical condition.

Ebbers, 78, has so far served about 13 years of his 25-year prison sentence for orchestrating the $11 billion accounting fraud by defunct telecommunications company WorldCom.

He had been scheduled to be freed in 2028 before Wednesday's ruling by Judge Valerie Caproni at a hearing in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

Ebbers, who has been held in a federal prison in Fort Worth, Texas, was not in the courtroom during the hearing.

But his family was, and they wept when Caproni said he would be set free and allowed to live with them in Mississippi.

Ebbers, who is legally blind, has suffered from dementia, dramatic weight loss and other ailments while in prison, his family and lawyers have said.