Italian authorities said on Thursday that they had seized about $23 million in assets that had been paid for with money reported stolen from the Swiss actress Ursula Andress, who is best known for her role as the first “Bond girl” opposite Sean Connery in “Dr. No.”
The assets were part of an international money-laundering scheme orchestrated by a former wealth manager for Ms. Andress and were used to buy a villa outside Florence in Tuscany, including vineyards, olive groves and a collection of artwork, the authorities said.
The wealth manager, whom Ms. Andress previously identified as Eric Freymond, died last year in an apparent suicide.
Ms. Andress, to whom a succession of Bond actresses have been compared over the decades, turned 90 on March 19.
In a social media post on Thursday, the Italian finance authorities said they had identified 20 million euros ($23 million) in assets connected to Ms. Andress, who has divided her time between Rome and Switzerland.
Italian authorities did not say if anyone had been arrested.
A lawyer for Ms. Andress in Switzerland did not immediately respond a request for comment on Thursday night.
In a January interview with Blick, a Swiss German-language news outlet, Ms. Andress said she was experiencing anxiety and could no longer sleep after being swindled by people she had trusted with her fortune. They had taken advantage of her age, transferring money out of a bank account without her consent to make fraudulent purchases, she said.
“I am still in shock,” Ms. Andress was quoted as saying. “I was deliberately chosen as a victim. For eight years, I was courted and wooed. They lied to me unscrupulously and exploited my good will and trust in a perfidious and indeed criminal way in order to take everything from me.”
Italian police and prosecutors did not immediately respond to requests for additional information on Thursday night.
The Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera reported that the money embezzled from Ms. Andress was used to buy a roughly 44-acre villa property in the hills outside Florence called Palazzo al Bosco and known for its collection of artwork.
Mr. Freymond died last July at 67 after being struck by a train. Swiss authorities told The Wall Street Journal that they were treating the case as a suicide. At the time, Mr. Freymond had been accused by several clients of misappropriating funds, claims that he denied.
Two lawyers for Mr. Freymond did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday.
Ms. Andress filed a criminal complaint against Mr. Freymond’s estate in Switzerland, where the authorities were also investigating her claims that she had been the victim of fraud.
The actress, who is retired, became an international sex symbol after her role as Honey Ryder in the 1962 movie “Dr. No,” the first installment in the decades-long James Bond franchise on the big screen. The movie was the debut of Mr. Connery as the suave British agent 007 created by the novelist Ian Fleming.
About an hour into “Dr. No,” Ms. Andress made her mesmerizing entrance onscreen, emerging from the waters of the Caribbean in a white bikini with two conch shells in her hands and a knife tucked into her belt while singing “Underneath the Mango Tree,” albeit dubbed. Her first encounter with Mr. Connery set a standard by which future Bond girls would be judged and was replicated by the actress Halle Berry in the 2002 Bond movie “Die Another Day.”
In 1963, Ms. Andress starred alongside Elvis Presley in the musical comedy “Fun in Acapulco” and two members of the Rat Pack (Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin) in the western comedy “4 for Texas.”
In 1967, she appeared in the James Bond parody “Casino Royale.”
Melina Delkic contributed reporting.
Neil Vigdor covers breaking news for The Times, with a focus on politics.
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