Ursula Andress, the actress remembered for her role as the first Bond girl in cinema, has recovered $23 million of her fortune that was stolen by her former manager.
Andress, 90, became a symbol of beauty after her role as Honey Ryder, the romantic interest of spy James Bond, then played by Sean Connery, in Dr. No, the first film of agent 007.
Unfortunately, she ended up losing £16 million (around $23 million) of her £18 million fortune to her former manager, Eric Freymond, who was accused of carrying out a series of questionable transactions that the actress was unaware of, including the purchase of artwork and other acquisitions made in her name.
Eric was already suspected of misappropriating the fortune of the Hermès heir, Nicolas Puech. During an interrogation in July last year, he confessed to some of the accusations before taking his own life after being struck by a train in Saanen, Switzerland.
Now, Italian authorities have been able to recover $23 million in “seized assets, artworks and financial availability [worth] around €20 million,” announced the Guardia di Finanza in a Facebook post last Thursday (26).
In January, in an interview with the Swiss outlet Blick, Andress said she was suffering from anxiety due to the fraud. “This feeling of helplessness is unbearable [and] is killing me. I am still in shock. I was deliberately chosen as a victim. For eight years […], they lied to me without scruples and exploited my goodwill and trust in a perfidious and truly criminal way to take everything from me,” the actress lamented at the time.
“I worked hard and always saved my money. I expected to spend my final years happily and peacefully. And now this happens… I was deceived in a disgusting way! I hope the perpetrators are punished to the fullest extent of the law. I am devastated.”
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