Volkswacht Bodensee - Italy seizes millions 'embezzled' from Ursula Andress

Andress, now 90, had filed a complaint in her native Switzerland alleging a "progressive and significant depletion of her assets" by individuals charged with managing her finances, Italy's financial crimes police said in a statement.

Prosecutors in the Swiss canton of Vaud built a picture of a "systematic misappropriation of financial resources" worth around 18 million Swiss francs (around 20 million euros) carried out through multiple, opaque transactions, it said.

The money was traced to Italy, where prosecutors in Florence took up the case and police began following the paper trail.

They tracked it to a real estate complex in San Casciano Val di Pesa, near Florence, consisting of 11 real estate units and 14 plots of land used as vineyards and olive groves, as well as works of art and other assets, the statement said.

"The Judge for Preliminary Investigations of the Court of Florence, fully endorsing the prosecution's position, ordered the seizure of the entire illicit profit, up to the amount of CHF 18,000,000, to be enforced against the identified assets," it added.

No suspects were identified.

Andress surged to fame thanks to a scene in 1962 James Bond movie "Dr NO", in which she 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.

I.Stoeckli--VB