MADRID – Mango co-owner Jonathan Andic’s contradictory accounts of his father’s fatal fall, together with evidence of their rifts over money and inheritance, were cited by a Spanish judge in the heir’s €1 million (S$1.48 million) bail order.
In the court ruling reviewed by Bloomberg News, the judge said there were “sufficient indications” to consider that the 71-year-old Mango founder Isak Andic’s death in December 2024 “could be a non-accidental death”, with “active and premeditated participation” by his son.
Mr Andic, a billionaire who started the clothing retailer in 1984, fell over 100m off a cliff while on a hike with his son in the Montserrat mountain nature reserve near Barcelona. On May 19, the younger Andic was detained and taken to court for questioning over his father’s death, before being released on bail.
The Andic family, worth an estimated €2.54 billion according to El Mundo newspaper, and Mango have consistently maintained that the tycoon’s death was accidental. Local media reported in late 2025 that the judge in the case had designated the younger Andic as an investigated suspect in a possible homicide. He has not been charged with any crime.
In the bail order, the judge cited discrepancies in the various statements made by him to the police and the court, including where he was walking at the time of the hike, whether his father had been using his phone and whether he could see him fall.
Data collected from the suspect’s car and traffic cameras had shown he had visited the area several times in the week leading to the fall, contrary to his statement that he had only been there “about two weeks earlier”, the ruling said.
It also referenced forensic reports concluding that marks found at the scene were inconsistent with a simple accidental slip.
The order further pointed to WhatsApp messages that allegedly showed longstanding tensions between father and son related to money.
According to the judge, the messages show the younger Andic had an “obsession” with money and had asked his father for an early inheritance, which Mr Andic conceded to in an attempt to maintain cordial relations with his son.
Investigators said they believe the suspect became aware in mid-2024 that his father planned to change his will and create a foundation for charitable purposes, and that this allegedly triggered a “notable” change in his behaviour towards reconciliation with his father.
The order also notes that the suspect changed phones in March 2025 and erased the contents of his previous device. It references the “disappearance, in strange circumstances” of the earlier phone during a two-day trip to Ecuador. The judge says police were unable to verify the alleged theft or loss of the device.
The judge ordered a provisional detention, and took the suspect’s passport, citing a risk of flight owing to the seriousness of the alleged offence and his financial means. He avoided prison by paying the bail and has to report to court weekly.
The younger Andic denies any wrongdoing. His lawyers said on May 19 that the “homicide theory is unfounded” and that it “stigmatises an innocent man”. The family also defended him, saying that “there is no legitimate evidence against him, nor will any be found”.
Mr Andic, 45, is now the main owner of the retail chain along with his two sisters. BLOOMBERG
