Bernard Madoff scandal draws publishers

Less than a week after Bernard Madoff was arrested on charges of masterminding the biggest Ponzi scheme ever, two U.S. publishing houses announced that the disgraced fund manager will be the subject of two books that will come out in 2010.

Madoff, chairman of Madoff Investment Securities in New York, has been charged with carrying out a $50-billion US pyramid scheme thatleft investors around the world in financial ruin.

Until recently, he was lionized as Wall Street's champion of the small investor.

HarperCollins US saidThursday it will release an investigative work about the scandal,written by New Yorktelevision reporter and anchor Andrew Kirtzman.

The Random House Publishing Group will publish a book about Madoff, also currently untitled, by 25-year, award-winning investigative journalist Richard Behar, who has written for Time magazine, Fortune and Forbes, and has won the U.S. National Magazine award.

Variety magazine reportedthis will be Behar's first book.

On Wednesday, Madoff signed over his Upper East Side apartment and his homes in Palm Beach, Fla.,and the Hamptons for his $10-million US bail bond.

Conditions for his release include a curfew and a monitoring bracelet.