Madoff Had $173M Ready To Go Out The Door

At least the Feds stopped the last Ponzi-esque actions from taking place in the Madoff scandal, according to prosecutors. A good $173 million in checks was found in Bernie's office the day he was cuffed and booked. If his bail is revoked, one has to wonder, will the warden "cast him down with the sodomites" or will he get preferential treatment and have a "one-bunk Hilton" like Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption? Needless to say whichever warden receives him in the end could use a man of his intelligence to run his scams.

Mr Madoff has previously been accused of mailing more than $1 million in jewelry and other valuables to relatives to prevent them from being seized by investigators looking into his alleged $50 billion fraud.

He is also said to have planned to distribute more than $200 million in cash to close friends and family once the scheme, which Mr Madoff apparently described as "basically, a giant Ponzi scheme", eventually collapsed under its own weight. 

more at

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/09/business/09madoff.html