Italian police seize $23M in assets linked to Bond co-star Ursula Andress

Italy’s financial police said they impounded about 20 million euros ($23 million) in property, artworks and financial assets in and around Florence that were allegedly bought with funds stolen from Ursula Andress. The agency said the seizures were linked to an investigation that began after the Swiss-born actress reported to Swiss authorities that she had been swindled by financial advisers.

The investigation was launched after Andress, 90, reported to Swiss authorities that advisers had taken control of her assets, Italy’s financial police said. In January, Andress told Swiss newspaper Blick that she had been defrauded out of 18 million Swiss francs—about 20 million euros—over eight years by her longtime financial adviser, the report said. The adviser had died by the time of the January account, Blick reported.

In the Blick interview, Andress said, “I am still in shock,’’ adding, “I was deliberately chosen as a victim. For eight years, I was courted and wooed. They lied to me shamelessly and exploited my goodwill in a perfidious, indeed criminal, way in order to take everything from me. They took advantage of my age.’’

Italian authorities said they traced the stolen funds to investments in foreign companies, which they said were used to buy assets and then moved through transactions intended to conceal the origin of the money. From there, investigators linked the proceeds to purchases in Florence and in the surrounding Tuscan countryside.

The police said investigators traced the funds to the purchase of 11 real estate properties and 14 plots of land cultivated as vineyards and olive groves. The agency also said the seizures included artworks and financial assets tied to those transactions. Authorities did not say whether anyone had been arrested.

Andress, best known for playing Honey Ryder—the first Bond girl—in 1962’s “Dr. No,” later worked with Elvis Presley on “Fun in Acapulco” and with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin in “Four for Texas.” She later moved into European film and television before retiring in the early 2000s.