Bernard Madoff may be negotiating a plea deal.

Pursuing efforts to jail Bernard Madoff, federal prosecutors disclosed Thursday that investigators had found about 100 signed checks to friends and relatives, totaling more than $173 million, on the day of his arrest.

Henry Kaufman, the Wall Street economist and investor legendary for his accurate predictions, wasn’t clairvoyant when it came to Bernard L. Madoff.

The past year has brought devastation to most on Wall Street, but for ex-powerhouse Dick Grasso, there has to be a bitter pleasure in watching so many adversaries knocked from their perches.

What’s a Ponzi scheme got to do to get lasting respect? In October, Thomas J. Petters, a Minnesota businessman, was the talk of the business world for allegedly defrauding investors of $3 billion or more.

In recent days, New York’s Fifth Avenue Synagogue has become a Who’s Who of Bernard Madoff victims.

One charity with Madoff connections has managed to emerge unscathed.

The late Hermann Merkin was a lion of Jewish philanthropy who gave millions to help build Yeshiva University, the Fifth Avenue Synagogue, and Merkin Concert Hall, among other causes. Now, his son, J. Ezra Merkin, has managed to wipe out much of what he spent a lifetime creating.

The Wall Street trader who engineered what may be the largest scheme in history to defraud investors spent nearly $1 million to lobby lawmakers and members of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The casualties of Bernard Madoff’s alleged $50-billion Ponzi scheme include some of the biggest names in Jewish philanthropy, in addition to titans of the business and real-estate worlds.