“NEW YORK – Prosecutors said Thursday that investigators found 100 signed checks worth $173 million in Bernard Madoff’s office desk that he was ready to send out to his closest family and friends at the time of his arrest last month.

The detail was provided in a court filing Thursday as prosecutors argued that Madoff should have his bail revoked and be sent to jail. They said the checks were further evidence that he wants to keep his assets away from burned investors….”

More at The New York Times.

And a report from December that I missed:

PARIS (AFP)–A Paris court Thursday cleared the banks Societe Generale SA ( 13080.FR) and Barclays PLC (BCS) of complicity in money-laundering between France and Israel, but convicted a top Pakistani bank and a U.K.-owned lender. The court also sentenced a former French prosecutor to 20 months for corruption, and gave two executives from the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP.KA) two-year suspended jail terms following a mammoth trial.

Judges heard how the four banks handled money from merchants in Paris‘ Sentier garment district – the proceeds of tax evasion, embezzlement or stolen checks laundered through banks or money exchange offices in Israel.

The banks had all denied any wrongdoing in the case, dubbed “Sentier 2.”

Read more of this Dow Jones newswire report on a money-laundering investigation in France.

(I found this link Friday 1/09/09)