Ruth Madoff, the 68-year-old wife of the jailed Wall Street swindler, broke her long silence yesterday to claim she had been "betrayed and confused" by her husband's scam.

Mrs Madoff has not been charged with any crimes but has been vilified by her husband's victims and left ostracised within New York high society.

Court documents released on Friday revealed that she gave up her potential claim to more than $80 million worth of assets though she has held on to $2.5 million that prosecutors could not directly link to the fraud.

She consented to the sale of a $7.5 million property in Palm Beach, a $7 million beachfront property in Montauk, her deluxe apartment on the Upper East Side and a 55-foot yacht to help cover the funds looted by her husband.

Despite the agreement, which was finalised three days before Madoff's sentencing for 150 years yesterday, his wife has been left with no protection from efforts by other bodies such as government agencies or bankruptcy trustees to claim further money from her.

Peter Chavkin, Mrs Madoff's lawyer, said she "unequivocally did not know of the misconduct and did not participate in it".

In a statement following her husband's sentencing to 150 years in prison, she said: "From the moment I learnt from my husband that he had committed an enormous fraud I have had two thoughts - first, that so many people who trusted him would be ruined financially and emotionally and, second, that my life with the man I have known for over 50 years was over."

She said she felt "embarrassed and ashamed" by his actions.

"The man who committed this horrible fraud is not the man whom I have known for all these years."

She said that while her reluctance to speak had been "interpreted as indifference or lack of sympathy for the victims of my husband Bernie's crime, which is exactly the opposite of the truth."

She added: "Many of my husband's investors were my close friends and family. And in the days since December, I have read, with immense pain, the wrenching stories of people whose life savings have evaporated because of his crime."

In court yesterday Madoff came to her defence, claiming she "cries herself to sleep every night knowing of all the pain and suffering I have caused and I am tormented by that as well".

Documents released earlier this year revealed that Mrs Madoff held a number of assets in her name. These included:

— A villa in Cap d'Antibes worth $1.3 million.

— A 40-foot Shelter Island Runabout sport fishing boat, known as “Sitting Bull,” which was bought in the name of Ruth Madoff for about $430,000

— A Rybovich 56-foot sport fishing boat seized by US authorities at the end of March. This boat was also owned in the name of Ruth Madoff.

— The nautically minded Mrs Madoff also owned another vessel, this one, a 25-foot Pathfinder boat, is known as “Little Bull”.

— One Steinway piano owned in the name of Ruth Madoff, which is valued at about $39,000.

— Silverware set owned in the name of Ruth Madoff, worth about $65,000.

— All funds of about $17 million on deposit in any and all accounts at Wachovia Bank in the name of Ruth Madoff, and any accounts to which said funds have been transferred, and all traceable funds.

— Any and all securities, funds and other property in the name of Ruth Madoff at COHMAD Securities Corp including but not limited to, municipal bonds valued at about $45 million.

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