New York, Jan 9 American businessman Bernard Madoff, accused of a 50-billion dollar investment fraud, has been revealed by prosecutors to have kept cheques amounting up to 173 million dollars in his desk to be sent out if he was arrested.

Madoff had signed the cheques, which were made out to family and friends, before the feds busted him and brought down the biggest Ponzi scheme ever.

"The only thing that prevented the defendant from dissipating those assets was his arrest by the FBI on Dec. 11," the New York Daily News quoted assistant U.S. Attorney Marc Litt as having written in court papers.

The feds latest filing was done in order to persuade Manhattan Federal Magistrate Judge Ronald Ellis to revoke Madoff's 10 million dollars bail.

Litt said that the plot to send out some 100 cheques came after Madoff had confessed the scheme to his sons and as the feds were closing in.

Madoff is currently living in his 7 million pound E. 64th St. penthouse pending Ellis' decision on whether he should be sent off to jail, as he waits for trial on the fraud charges, or he gets bail. (ANI)