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An actress who starred as one of the first Bond girls has accused her late wealth manager of stealing £17m of her fortune.
Ursula Andress, who turned 90 on Thursday, claimed that Eric Freymond had taken “everything” from her and left her with an “unbearable” feeling of helplessness.
She filed a criminal complaint against his estate, alleging that he gambled or lost £17m of her £19m fortune through a series of transactions that were unknown to her.
Speaking to Blick, a Swiss-German publication, ahead of her milestone birthday, the actress said: “For eight years, I was courted and wooed.
“They lied to me ruthlessly and exploited my goodwill and trust in a perfidious, even criminal, way to take everything from me. And they were counting on my age. I’m so devastated.”
The Swiss actress shot to fame as the sex symbol Honey Ryder in the first James Bond film Dr No, appearing alongside Sean Connery as 007 in 1962.
At the age of 26, she won the Golden Globe for New Star of the Year for her debut English language role, in which she famously emerged from the ocean clad in a white bikini with a dagger on her hip.
Andress, who is now based in Rome, explained that she could no longer sleep because of the anxiety surrounding her fortune, adding: “This feeling of helplessness is unbearable – it’s killing me.”
Andress said she had an ‘unbearable’ feeling of helplessness – Daniele Venturelli/Getty Images
Freymond died after being struck by a train in an apparent suicide last year.
He is alleged to have made a series of art purchases worth several million Swiss francs without her knowledge, but none of the works have been handed over to her. They are reportedly in his widow’s name, but there is no indication she was involved in any wrongdoing.
Some of Andress’s fortune is also said to be invested in worthless stocks.
‘Disgustingly cheated’
The actress, who went on to star as Vesper Lynd in the 1967 Bond parody Casino Royale, said she was “not doing very well at the moment” and reportedly cancelled interview plans to mark her birthday on March 19.
She told Blick: “Everyone knows how meticulous and down-to-earth I’ve been in my life, without ever losing touch with reality. The virtues of a Swiss girl from Ostermundigen have guided me my whole life.
“Like all Swiss people, I’ve worked hard and always saved my money. I hoped to spend my final years happily and peacefully. And now this happens – I’ve been disgustingly cheated. I hope the perpetrators are punished to the full extent of the law. I’m devastated.”
Freymond, who was a financial adviser to Europe’s elite for decades, died at the age of 67 in July 2025, shortly after being accused of playing a role in the disappearance of a large fortune belonging to Nicolas Puech, the fifth-generation Hermès heir.
Mr Puech filed lawsuits against the wealth manager in both Switzerland and France, accusing him of “massive fraud”, but Freymond denied wrongdoing.
He was subject to interviews with French authorities who were investigating missing shares, worth an estimated $15bn (£12bn) based on the company’s valuation at the time.
Andress filed her own criminal complaint against Freymond’s estate shortly after his death in Switzerland. The investigation is ongoing.
Andress also appeared in the 1965 film She – Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images
Claudio Righetti, the actress’s adviser, suggested that the case was highly complex. A statement from her management to Blick said: “As part of a fraud scheme of exceptional scale and complexity, involving numerous actors and structures, she was deprived of a large portion of her assets, resulting in significant damage.”
Andress has several film credits to her name, particularly from the 60s and 70s. She starred alongside Elvis Presley in Fun in Acapulco in 1963 and took on the lead role in 1965’s She.
Her last mainstream Hollywood role was in 1981’s Clash of the Titans, in which she portrayed Aphrodite and met Harry Hamlin, the father of her son Dimitri, on set. The couple were together for roughly four years.
Andress appeared in fewer films during the 90s, and her last role was in a 2005 Swiss film titled Die Vogelpredigt oder Das Schreien der Mönche (St Francis Birds Tour).
The actress sold her three-bedroom Hollywood home in 2017 and now splits her time between Rome and Switzerland, where her brother Heinz Andress is based.