The Wall Street Journal is reporting on its homepage that, according to prosecutors, Bernard Madoff had $173 million in signed checks made out to his friends and employees in his office desk at the time of his arrest.

News reports immediately after Madoff's arrest revealed that, after confessing the alleged fraud to his sons, he asked them for time to distribute bonuses to his firm's employees.

From the Journal at the time:

Mr. Madoff told them he planned to surrender to authorities, but first, he wanted to pay certain employees portions of the $200 million to $300 million dollars that was left.

And earlier this week, the Associated Press reported:

Prosecutors on Monday said disgraced financier Bernard Madoff violated bail conditions by mailing about $1 million worth of jewelry and other assets to relatives and should be jailed without bail.

Investigators have been working to figure out what Madoff did with the billions he's alleged to have stolen.

Yesterday, the Journal reported that shortly before his arrest, Madoff received $250 million from Carl Shapiro, an early friend and backer, in what was believed to be an effort to stave off his firm's collapse.