Zachary Roth February 4, 2009, 2:36 PM

Another interesting moment from the House committee hearings on the Bernard Madoff case.

Lori Richards, the director of the agency’s Office of Compliance, Inspections, and Examinations, told the committee she recused herself from the Madoff probe because a former employee she supervised had married Madoff’s niece, and Richards was at the wedding.

She was referring to Eric Swanson, an SEC lawyer who married Shana Madoff in 2006. Shana Madoff had worked for her uncle’s firm as a compliance lawyer.

The admission that Richards — the top SEC official overseeing examinations of brokers — recused herself, points up the way in which Madoff’s cozy ties to regulators helped his scheme go undetected.

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