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Model wanted in murder of expat millionaire

Spanish police are looking for a Slovakian model who they suspect shot dead her former lover, a British millionaire jeweller, in his home on the Costa de Sol on Saturday.

Published: 7 April 2014 10:31 CEST

Model wanted in murder of expat millionaire

All investigations are now centred on Bush's ex-lover, a blonde Slovakian model called Mayka Kukucova. Photo: Facebook

Forty-eight-year-old Andrew Bush was found dead on Saturday morning in his home in the southern Spanish town of Estepona.

Bush, who ran several jewellery businesses in Bristol, was shot twice in the head, the gun reportedly being found by police at the victim’s side.

All investigations are now centred on Bush's ex-lover, a blonde Slovakian model called Mayka Kukucova.

According to the millionaire's current girlfriend, Kukucova had opened the door to his home when they returned from a week away.

She called Spanish police when she was locked out by her boyfriend’s enraged ex and then watched her flee in one of Bush's luxury cars.

"We received a call at 2.10am on Saturday morning from the partner of the dead man because she could not gain access to the property," Estepona emergency services confirmed.

"Firefighters managed to get in and found the man lying dead inside with a gunshot wound to his head.

"Police are now probing the possibility she (Kukucova) may have let herself into the property while the occupant was away and waited for several days for him to return."

A neighbour, who asked not to be named, reportedly told the Mail Online: "All we know is that she's in her early twenties and comes from somewhere in Eastern Europe.

"From what I've heard the police are treating it as a terrible act of jealousy."

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Spanish court shelves Shakira tax fraud case

Prosecutors had opened the case in July, accusing her of using a network of companies, some of them based in tax havens, to cheat the tax office out of €6.6 million ($7.09 million) in 2018, including interest and adjustments. A month later, the so-called Queen of Latin Pop paid €6.6 million to settle the debt.

But on Wednesday prosecutors recommended that the probe be dropped due to “insufficient evidence” and the court investigating the case agreed.

While the court said the “Hips Don’t Lie” singer had committed “irregularities” in her 2018 tax return, it added that “irregularities are not enough to constitute a (criminal) offence against the tax authorities”.

It added that Shakira did not have “the intent to defraud the tax authorities”.

In a separate case, Shakira in November struck a last-minute settlement with prosecutors on the opening day of her trial over a separate tax fraud charge involving income she earned between 2012 and 2014.

In that case prosecutors had sought a jail sentence of over eight years for the singer. They accused her of defrauding the tax authorities of €14.5 million in a case that centred on how much time she was living in Spain.

Shakira denied the charges, saying she only moved to Spain full time in 2015.

By the time the case came to trial, she had already paid €17.45 million to settle her outstanding tax debt, prosecutors said at the time.

‘Emotional toll’

On the day it opened, that trial — which had been due to run for three weeks and hear from some 120 witnesses — was quickly concluded after she agreed to pay a fine of nearly 7.8 million euros.

At the time she explained she had settled “with the best interest of my kids at heart” because she needed “to move past the stress and emotional toll of the last several years” and focus on her career.

Shakira, 47, now lives in Miami with her two sons after splitting from Barcelona star defender Gerard Pique.

He was himself convicted of tax fraud in 2016 and ordered to pay €2.1 million in fines and arrears. Spain’s Supreme Court in 2021 annulled his conviction.

Last year, Shakira’s superstar Argentine producer Bizarrap won the Latin Grammy for song of the year with a track taking a swipe at Pique — who has since retired from football — in which she accuses him of leaving her with a “debt to the tax office”.

“People on my team tried to convince me to change the lyrics, but I’m not a UN diplomat. I am an artist and, above all, a woman,” Shakira told Spanish celebrity magazine ¡Hola!

Spain has in recent years cracked down on celebrities, including football stars such as Argentina’s Lionel Messi and Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo, for unpaid taxes.

Both players were found guilty of evasion and received prison sentences that were waived for first-time offenders.

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