Disgraced financier Bernard Madoff awaits trial at home

— -- Bernard Madoff was ordered held on home detention in his $7 million Manhattan apartment Wednesday as furor grew over how the disgraced money manager was able to build an alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme without being caught.

Federal District Judge Gabriel Gorenstein said Madoff, 70, must wear electronic monitoring, observe a 7 p.m-to-9 a.m. curfew and restrict his travel as conditions of his $10 million bail. He and wife Ruth were told to surrender their passports, and they put up their apartment, as well as homes in Montauk, Long Island, and Palm Beach, Fla., to guarantee the bail. The terms had to be changed after Madoff's sons, Mark and Andrew, who turned their father over to prosecutors last Thursday, refused to co-sign his bond.

Madoff is charged with a scheme in which prosecutors say he used money from new investors to pay off existing shareholders, creating the illusion of a very successful performance that won him fame on Wall Street.

The key question now is if anyone else knew about the alleged fraud. Many of Madoff's top officers at his closely held firm were family members. His brother Peter was director of trading and chief compliance officer, and his two sons were directors of proprietary trading. In an e-mailed response, an attorney for the sons, Martin Flumenbaum, says they weren't involved with the asset-management business, at the center of the investigation, and were victims themselves.

"They were shocked to learn of his (Madoff's) actions and contacted the authorities immediately upon being told that he had been defrauding the firm's clients," Flumenbaum said.

Meanwhile, more investigations were launched. Rep. Paul Kanjorski, D-Pa., chairman of the House Financial Services Subcommittee, called for an inquiry early next month.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is looking into one of its former lawyers, Eric Swanson, who was involved in investigating Madoff's firm in 1999 and in 2004. In 2007, Swanson married Shana Madoff, the firm's compliance lawyer and Madoff's niece. Swanson left the SEC in 2006. A spokesman for Swanson didn't respond to calls for comment.