Italy seizes millions in assets allegedly stolen from original Bond actress Ursula Andress

Italian authorities have impounded 20 million ($23 million) in property, artworks, and financial assets in and around Florence, allegedly bought with money stolen from original Bond girl Ursula Andress, Italys financial police said Thursday. The seizures follow an investigation launched after Andress reported to Swiss authorities that she had been defrauded by her financial advisers. The 90-year-old former Bond star told Swiss newspaper Blick in January that she lost 18 million Swiss francs (around 20 million) over an eight-year period to her long-time financial adviser, who has since died. I am still in shock, Andress said. 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 to take everything from me. They took advantage of my age. Italian authorities said the stolen funds were invested in foreign companies, used to purchase assets, and funneled through transactions designed to hide their origin. The trail led to 11 real estate properties, 14 plots of land cultivated as vineyards and olive groves, as well as artworks and financial assets in Florence and the surrounding Tuscan countryside. Authorities did not disclose whether any arrests have been made. Swiss-born Andress is best known as the first Bond girl, Honey Ryder, in 1962s Dr. No, where she made her iconic entrance emerging from the sea in a white bikini. She also starred alongside Elvis Presley in Fun in Acapulco and with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin in Four for Texas, before transitioning to European cinema and television and retiring in the early 2000s. The post Italy seizes millions in assets allegedly stolen from original Bond actress Ursula Andress appeared first on Linda Ikeji Blog.