Korbut faces charges of shoplifting in a local shop

The service's representative in Atlanta, Bill Creel, said more than $4,000 in fake $100 bills were found at the house, in Duluth in the US state of Georgia.

Korbut's manager Kay Weatherford said the bills had nothing to do with the 46-year-old former gymnast, and that she wanted to take a lie detector test.

A native of the former Soviet republic of Belarus, Korbut charmed the world by winning three gold medals at the 1972 Olympics in Munich and adding another four years later in Montreal.

Abandoned house

Police said the counterfeit bills were found on 5 December, while representatives of the local sheriff were serving an eviction notice.

Korbut stormed to stardom in 1972

The Gwinnett County sheriff said in his report that the house - to which Korbut and her then husband Leonid Bortkevich moved in 1993 - was abandoned and badly damaged.

But Ms Weatherford told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper that Korbut had moved out in 2000 after her divorce, and was now living in another part of the state.

Korbut's lawyer Howard Weintraub said that the couple's son, Richard, and a roommate had been the last people living in the house.

Last month Korbut was arrested on charges of shoplifting $19 worth of groceries from a local shop. The local sheriff's department said she paid $600 bail and was now awaiting a court date.

Korbut first moved to Atlanta in 1991 to teach children gymnastics.