Italy seizes tens of millions in belongings allegedly stolen from Bond co-star Ursula Andress | EUROtoday

Italian authorities have impounded 20 million euros ($23 million) price of property, artworks and monetary belongings in and round Florence that had been allegedly bought with cash stolen from unique Bond woman Ursula Andress, Italy’s monetary police mentioned in a press release on Thursday.

The seizures had been the results of an investigation launched after Andress reported to Swiss authorities that she had been swindled out of belongings by monetary advisers.

The 90-year-old former Bond woman informed Swiss newspaper Blick in January that she had been defrauded out of 18 million Swiss francs, roughly 20 million euros, by her long-time monetary adviser over an eight-year interval. The newspaper mentioned the adviser had died within the meantime.

“I am still in shock,’’ Andress was quoted as saying. “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.’’

The stolen funds were invested in foreign companies, used to buy assets and then channeled through transactions designed to conceal their source, Italian authorities said.

They were traced to the purchase of 11 real estate properties, 14 plots of land cultivated as vineyards and olive groves, along with artworks and financial assets in Florence and the neighboring Tuscan countryside.

Authorities did not say if any arrests were made.

Swiss-born Andress is best known as the first Bond girl, Honey Ryder, in 1962’s “Dr. No,” which featured her memorable entrance rising from the ocean in a white bikini. She went on to work with Elvis Presley in “Fun in Acapulco” and Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin in “Four for Texas.” She later transitioned to a European cinema and tv profession, earlier than retiring to within the early 2000s.