A South African who was a U.S. track star faces prison on fraud charges here.

South African media report Sydney Maree was convicted and sentenced earlier this month in Pretoria to 10 years, five of them suspended, for stealing about 1 million rand from a government agency he headed in 2003.

The agency helped businesses started by blacks, who had been deprived of opportunities under apartheid.

Maree, 52, is on bail pending appeal.

Maree attended Pennsylvania’s Villanova University in the 1970s. He later took U.S. citizenship, and in 1985 he set American records for 1,500 meters and 5,000 meters.

He used his stature to speak out against apartheid and was a prominent national figure after returning to South Africa after apartheid’s 1994 end.