The inspector general for the Securities and Exchange Commission is leaving his position after four years, during which he put the US government agency under harsh scrutiny and exposed serious lapses in detecting or pursuing major fraud schemes.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission lawyer who later married Bernard Madoff’s niece said he would have made a deeper investigation into the disgraced financier’s business had he been more thorough in studying a complaint.

Fallen US financier Bernard Madoff was today forced into the humiliation of wearing an electronic tag as part of his bail conditions.