LOS ANGELES — One of the men behind the anti-Muslim film trailer on YouTube that has set off violent protests at Western embassies across the Middle East was taken in for questioning by federal probation officers on Saturday morning, law enforcement officials said.


The man, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55, was questioned at the Los Angeles County sheriff’s station in Cerritos, where he lives. He was not placed under arrest.


“This was a voluntary interview he did with federal probation officers,” said Kim Manatt, a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy.


Federal court officials did not immediately respond to calls on Saturday.


In June 2010, Mr. Nakoula was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison for orchestrating a check-kiting scheme. In addition, as part of the fraud scheme, prosecutors also said Mr. Nakoula possessed at least 15 credit and debit cards in the names of other people, along with at least five identification documents that were not issued lawfully. Though Mr. Nakoula served about only a year in prison, part of his sentence also prohibited him from using the Internet while on probation for five years without permission from his probation officer, court records show.


The review is intended to determine whether Mr. Nakoula violated the terms of his probation.


The incendiary, amateurish video, which depicts the Prophet Muhammad as a buffoon, a womanizer and a child molester, was first uploaded to YouTube in June and was translated into Arabic and uploaded several more times in the week leading up to the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.


That helped generate protests last week, first at the United States Embassies in Egypt and Libya, where the American ambassador and three other people were killed, and then at Western embassies and consulates throughout the Middle East.


Since the protests, Mr. Nakoula had remained holed up inside his house, while a media encampment kept 24-hour watch outside his front door.


A photograph on the Los Angeles Times Web site showed Mr. Nakoula wearing a coat, a scarf and a hat pulled down over his face as Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies ushered him into a car.


Mr. Nakoula, the former owner of a gas station near his home, apparently used a series of pseudonyms while making and discussing the film, “Innocence of Muslims,” even when dealing with some of the actors, who believed that they were making a film called “Desert Warriors.”


One actress said she had no idea Muhammad was even a character in the film, which was produced last year in the remote hills of Los Angeles County.


Deputy Don Walker of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department told The Associated Press that Mr. Nakoula traveled voluntarily in a squad car with deputies for the interview.


“He went to the Cerritos station to talk with probation officers,” Deputy Walker said. “He’s not under any arrest.”


The deputy said he did not know how long the interview lasted.


The federal authorities identified Mr. Nakoula, a self-described Coptic Christian, as the main figure behind the film.


A federal law enforcement official told The Associated Press on Thursday that the authorities connected Mr. Nakoula to a man using the pseudonym Sam Bacile who had claimed to be the writer and director of the film.


The protests in Libya set off by the film played a role in mob attacks in Benghazi that killed the ambassador, J. Christopher Stevens, and three other Americans.


American Embassy gates in Cairo were breached by protesters, and demonstrations against American missions spread to Yemen on Thursday and to several other countries on Friday.