He was the archetype of a self-made man. How commercial intuition, business acumen and effort can become, on some happy occasions, the formula for the most resounding success.

But its tragic end, if justice's suspicions are confirmed, could also tell another, much darker story: that of how greed and ambition can destroy even the most solid family ties.

Isak Andic, founder of the international fast fashion chain Mango, died on December 14, 2024 after falling down a cliff of more than 100 meters while hiking with his son on the Montserrat mountain in Barcelona.

His first-born son, Jonathan, has been charged with murder. This Tuesday he was arrested and, after appearing before the judge, released after paying bail of US$1.16 million.

The judge considers that “there is sufficient evidence” to consider Jonathan Andic “as the perpetrator of a crime of homicide resulting in death.”

In the order issued this Tuesday, to which BBC Mundo had access, the judge maintains that there were contradictions between the versions offered by the son in the two statements he made to the police as a witness.

The data collected by his vehicle also confirms that the accused was in the accident area at least three times in the week before the fateful walk he took with his father, which deepens the suspicion that there may have been premeditation.

The judge also assures that the messages that father and son sent each other show an “obsession with money” on Jonathan's part. He also indicates that it was not until 2024, when he learned that his father planned to change his will by creating a foundation to help those most in need, that the son changed his attitude and sought reconciliation with his father.

It was then that Isak accepted his son's invitation to take a walk in the mountains and talk just the two of them, according to the car.

self made man

Like the other great fashion businessman in Spain, the Galician Amancio Ortega, founder of Inditex (Zara, Bershka, Massimo Dutti, etc.), who began selling robes, Isak Andic built his empire starting from nothing.

Born in 1953 in Istanbul, Turkey, into a Sephardic Jewish family, Isak emigrated to Spain with his parents and siblings in the late 1960s, when he was just 14 years old.

With a great nose for business, the young man started with his brother Nahman selling embroidered shirts that he brought from Türkiye in the markets of Barcelona. There, thanks to contact with clients, he learned to understand their needs.

The business grew, diversified its offering and began selling footwear, accessories and embroidered coats that it brought from Afghanistan.

Isak Andic once had three stalls in the Balmes Street Market, to which he later added other stores, including one selling denim clothing that he sold to wholesalers.

He thus acquired experience in logistics and imports and, in 1984, the brothers partnered with businessman Enric Casi and founded the first Mango store on Paseo de Gracia in Barcelona. He would almost later be CEO of the company for years and a fundamental piece for its international expansion.

The business didn't take long to grow. Eight years later they already had 100 stores in Spain, and they opened the first ones outside the country, in Portugal.

Together with the founder of Inditex, Isak Andic helped forge a fast fashion model that today prevails throughout the world, in which collections, at reasonable prices, change as quickly as the tastes of its customers.

Today Mango has more than 2,900 stores in 120 countries, and has 16,400 employees, according to the information offered on its corporate website.

Andic also created one of the largest fortunes in Spain, which Forbes magazine estimated at US$4.5 billion.

Passionate about sailing (he even took a sabbatical year to sail around the world with his sailboat), he was a reserved person, whom those who knew described as a “gentleman”, firm with his employees, but polite.

The heir

The businessman had three children, Jonathan (1981), Judith (1984) and Sarah (1997), with his wife Neus Raig Tarragó, with whom he was married for 20 years.

The two eldest were soon incorporated into the company, Judith in the design area and Jonathan held different functions, soon emerging as the heir, according to a profile that the economic newspaper “Expansión” made of them in 2016.

Jonathan, educated in Switzerland, graduated in Audiovisual Communication in the United States and with an MBA from the IESE business school, made the big leap within the company in 2007, when he led the launch of Mango's men's clothing line.

In 2012, Isak named his son deputy president and member of the board of directors and, two years later, put him at the helm of the company while he sought to step back.

However, the million-dollar losses incurred by the fashion giant during that time caused Isak Andic to regain control of Mango and replace Jonathan with Toni Ruiz, the company's current CEO.

Disagreements between father and son

That decision caused Jonathan to resent his father, according to various sources close to the family telling the Spanish press.

In fact, Isak's partner, the golfer Estefanía Knuth, with whom he had been in a relationship for six years when he died, assured the police that father and son had had "strong disputes" since then.

That is the conclusion also reached by the order of the judge who ordered Jonathan's provisional detention on bail, Raquel Nieto Galván. He also points out that, as corroborated by several witnesses, the crisis that the company suffered in 2015 led to a crisis "on a professional, personal and family level", especially with the father, who separated his son and returned to run the company.

Although the son declared that “it was a relationship without disagreements,” according to the investigation, the analysis of the WhatsApp messages on his phone “shows the opposite.”

The judge points out that "the main reason for said bad relationship" is the "obsession" that Jonathan has with money, to the point that he asked his father for "a living inheritance", which Isak Andic "is forced to accept in order to continue having a relationship with his son."

The change in the will

From the analysis of the conversations, it is also clear that in mid-2024 Jonathan learned of his father's intentions to create a foundation that would help people in need, for which he wanted to change the will. That foundation was never created.

“It is at that moment that a notable change occurs in Mr. J A., who attempts to reconcile and recognizes that his attitude with money is not correct,” the order states.

It was then that Isak accepted his son's invitation to walk through the mountains to chat and iron out differences.

Jonathan stated that he had been at that location two weeks before, but the location tests of his vehicle were able to verify that he went to the scene of the events on December 7, 8 and 10. Isak Andic fell down that same mountain on December 14.

Of that excursion, and what happened so that his father ended up falling off a cliff on a path that, according to the car, does not present any difficulty and for which specific footwear is not required, Jonathan gave the police at least two contradictory versions.

In the first, on December 14, the son claimed that he walked about four or five meters in front of his father, who had stopped to take some photographs with his mobile phone.

Jonathan stated that he was not in sight and that, as he was walking, he “heard the sound of a stone falling,” he turned around and only saw a body rolling through the bushes, after which he heard “a loud bang and a moan of pain from his father.”

In the second statement, however, which he gave on December 31, 2025, he indicated that his father used the phone only at the beginning of the tour, as later demonstrated by downloading the information from Isak's cell phone. The phone was also found in the deceased's pants pocket, suggesting that he did not use it at the time before the fall.