NEW YORK - US AUTHORITIES on Thursday seized the Manhattan penthouse owned by convicted Wall Street swindler Bernard Madoff, forcing out his wife Ruth who was still living there.

'The US marshalls went and seized the property,' marshall spokesman Nikki Credic confirmed to AFP.

Madoff was sentenced on Monday to 150 years in jail for masterminding what the judge described as an 'extraordinarily evil' multi-billion-dollar investment scam that cheated thousands of people around the world.

Ruth Madoff, who has not been shown to be complicit in her husband's elaborate 'Ponzi' scheme, released a statement after the sentencing that condemned the former Nasdaq chairman's actions.

On Thursday she 'voluntarily left' the US$7 million (S$10.2 million) Manhattan suite after officials arrived, Ms Credic said.

The court ordered Madoff forfeit more than US$170 billion dollars in illegally obtained assets and in an accompanying order a district court also stipulated Ruth Madoff be stripped of US$85 million in assets, leaving her with US$2.5 million in cash. -- AFP