The Mossos d’Esquadra have collected the statements of a battery of witnesses as part of the judicial investigation to clarify the circumstances of Isak Andic’s death. The agents questioned people from the family and business environment of the Mango founder with the aim, among other things, of knowing in detail what the relationship was with his eldest son, Jonathan Andic, investigated by the police for an alleged murder crime. Isak Andic died on December 14, 2024 after falling from a height of approximately 100 meters during a hike along a trail in the Montserrat mountain (Barcelona) in which only he and Jonathan were present. The Mossos investigate the event as a possible homicide, although they do not rule out that the death was accidental, the result of a slip. The case, headed by a court in Martorell, continues under secret summary.
The president of Mango, Toni Ruiz, is one of the people who recently released a statement, as EL PAÍS learned from judicial sources. Ruiz is CEO of the multinational fashion company and also became its president after the sudden death of the founder. The manager arrived at the company in 2015, a particularly turbulent year in the relationships between father and son. Andic had stepped aside and left the company in the hands of several managers, including Jonathan. That year he reproached his eldest son for the fact that under his direction the company had lost its “essence” and blamed him for poor management that would result in millionaire losses, and which forced Isak Andic to take over the reins again.
Isak Andic’s partner at the time of his death, the golfer Estefanía Knuth, revealed that episode of tension in her deposition, again as a witness, before the Mossos. The researchers now wanted to get other perspectives on those events. The interrogations try to clarify what the state of the relationship between father and son was at the time of the events; a relationship which, according to various sources consulted by this newspaper, has been fluctuating over time and, at times, conflictual, above all due to the lack of professional consideration that Isak Andic had for his son.
Judith and Sarah Andic, Jonathan’s sisters, also made statements about the more personal aspects of that relationship. The Mango founder’s last will and testament, made before a notary in the summer of 2023, distributed the inheritance equally between the three brothers. Andic, fifth fortune in Spain according to the magazine Forbeshe left another part of his immense wealth (the inheritance) to several people, including Estefanía Knuth, to whom he assigned approximately five million euros. The former couple did not feel satisfied with that figure and began negotiations with their children to improve it which continued in parallel with the criminal investigation.
The series of testimonies also includes Jonathan Andic’s psychotherapist, who according to the same sources took advantage of professional secrecy to be questioned on aspects relating to the mental health of the person under investigation. Jonathan’s uncle and Mango founder, Nahman Andic, also testified.
Interviewed by this newspaper, sources close to the family underline that, “like the Andic family, the people closest to Isak Andic, such as Toni Ruiz, Andic’s executor and partner, collaborated from the beginning of the proceedings and at every moment in which they were asked to do so with the competent authorities”. In a statement they add that, as stated in a statement issued by the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC), “the investigation is not directed against any specific person” and “no other communication has been issued indicating the contrary”. The text adds that “the executors” (Toni Ruiz, Jose Creuheras and Dani López) asked for “respect for the memory” of Isak Andic and for the “privacy of the family” in a writing published in the newspaper The reason.
Jonathan Andic’s statements
Jonathan Andic made statements on two occasions, always as a witness, before the Mossos. There were several contradictions in these explanations which, together with other evidence, consolidated the police’s suspicions. Last September, investigators intercepted Jonathan on the street and asked for his cell phone (which he had voluntarily handed over) and a few days later and indirectly, according to sources close to him, informed him that he was under investigation.
There are no witnesses to what happened on the road that starts from Collbató (Barcelona) and leads to the monastery of Montserrat, except Jonathan himself. Without direct evidence, the Mossos have collected evidence over the months that suggests the possibility that it could be a murder. When the agents present their conclusions to the judge, the latter will have to decide whether to close the proceedings or keep the investigation open and summon Jonathan Andic to testify, this time with the formal status of a suspect, for a murder crime.
