Judge orders top Madoff aide released on bail

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Swindler Bernard Madoff's right-hand man, Frank DiPascali, is getting out of jail after months of haggling over bail, but he faces strict electronic monitoring while under house arrest.

U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan on Thursday ordered the release of DiPascali, 53, on $10 million bond secured by $2 million in cash and property. Previous attempts by his lawyers to have him freed on bail, since he pleaded guilty last August, had failed.

"By clear and convincing evidence, the revised bail package proposed by the parties is sufficient to ensure defendant's future appearance in this matter," Sullivan wrote in the order filed in Manhattan federal court.

DiPascali has been jailed pending sentencing after admitting to 10 criminal charges for his role in helping Bernard Madoff operate and conceal a multibillion dollar fraud from market regulators.

Disgraced financier Bernard Madoff, 71, is serving a 150-year prison sentence after admitting in March last year to running an investment fraud of as much as $65 billion.

DiPascali had worked for Madoff's firm since 1975, rising to become chief financial officer, before the fraud was revealed with Madoff's arrest in December 2008.

DiPascali will be confined to his home and fitted with an electronic monitoring device that has global positioning system tracking ability, the judge's order said. It said property securing the bond included homes of family and friends.

The case is USA v Frank DiPascali, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, No. 09-764

(Reporting by Grant McCool and Jonathan Stempel; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)