Italian authorities have confiscated assets worth €20 million (£17.3 million) in Tuscany, comprising real‑estate, vineyards and olive groves, allegedly purchased with funds embezzled from the actress Ursula Andress.
The 90‑year‑old Swiss‑born star lodged a complaint in her home country claiming a “progressive and significant depletion of her assets” by persons entrusted with managing her finances, Italy’s financial‑crime police said in a Thursday statement.
Prosecutors in the Vaud canton of Switzerland assembled evidence of a “systematic misappropriation of financial resources” amounting to roughly 18 million Swiss francs, carried out through a series of opaque transactions, the police added.
The trail of the money led to Italy, where Florentine prosecutors assumed the case and officers began following the documentary evidence.
They followed it to San Casciano in Val di Pesa, close to Florence, uncovering a property complex of 11 units and 14 land parcels used for vineyards and olive groves, together with works of art and other holdings, the statement noted.
“The Florence examining magistrate, fully supporting the prosecution’s view, ordered the seizure of the entire illicit gain, up to CHF 18 000 000, to be enforced against the identified assets,” it continued.
No suspects were named in the announcement.
Andress rose to prominence after her iconic emergence from the sea in a white bikini, knife at her side and a seashell in each hand, in the 1962 James Bond film *Dr No*. That scene opposite Sean Connery sparked a film and television career that spanned more than twenty years.
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