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Italian police say they’ve recovered €20 million of assets allegedly bought from money stolen from the original Bond Girl Ursula Andress.
Goods seized include property, vineyards and olive groves in the Tuscany region.
The case stems from a complaint the 90-year-old actress made in her native Switzerland, accusing individuals who managed her finances of “progressive and significant depletion of her assets”.
In a joint operation, Swiss and Italian prosecutors traced the money to Florence from where police began probing the paper trail. Italian authorities say the swindled funds were invested in foreign companies, used to buy goods and then channeled through transactions designed to conceal their source.
The inquiry led them to a real estate complex in San Casciano Val di Pesa where they also discovered many works of art and other assets.
“I am still in shock,’’ Andress was quoted as saying to Swiss newspaper Blick. “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.’’
However, no suspects have yet been identified.
Andress shot to stardom as Honey Ryder in the 1962 James Bond movie Dr NO in which she memorably emerged from the sea onto a Caribbean beach in a white bikini, knife at her hip and a seashell in each hand.
That performance opposite Sean Connery launched a career in film and television that lasted for more than two decades.
Video editor • Yolaine De Kerchove Dexaerde
Additional sources • AP