Fiancée of Brit millionaire ‘Mr Bling of Marbella’ shot dead by model claims rival ordered killing & fears she’s next
THE fiancée of a British millionaire shot dead by his model ex-girlfriend claims a business rival ordered his killing and fears she may be next.
Maria Korotaeva, 27, said husband-to-be Andrew Bush - known as 'Mr Bling of Marbella' - had received death threats in the weeks leading up to his murder and a jewellery competitor could have ordered the hit.
Slovakian national Mayka Kukucova, 31, waited in the bed of the Bristol businessman at his Spanish villa before fatally shooting him three times in 2014.
She escaped to her home country 2,000 miles away but was caught and then jailed for 15 years in May 2016. She then had her sentence reduced the following year to 13 years' imprisonment.
But Maria now claims she thinks Kukucova was instructed to carry out the killing over Bush's plans to establish a jewellery business in London, reports.
In a new tell-all book, Maria says: "A couple of weeks before his murder, Andy was in Germany at a jewellers conference.
"He came back really upset, saying that someone – a rival entrepreneur, I think – was threatening him because of his plans.
"We think Mayka was told if she did the murder she would get three or four years."
Maria said Bush had proposed to her at dinner on the night of his murder.
He then drove them home in his £60,000 gold-plated Humvee 4x4, unaware that swimwear model Kukucova was lying in wait armed with a .38 revolver.
She shot Bush three times - twice in the head - in what a Malaga court said was the revenge of a jealous lover.
But Russian businesswoman Maria thinks the killing by Kukucova was a hit and now fears her own life could be at risk.
"I’m now worried she may come find me when she gets out. God knows what she is thinking. What is in her head?" she said.
Maria said she nor Bush reported the threats made to him to the police because "they didn't take them seriously" at the time.
Bush and Kukucova got together in 2012 after she started working at his Gold Trader shop in Bristol.
They were together for two years but later split, and months later he met Maria, who was studying for a business and human resources degree in the UK.
An inquest into Bush's death heard how in April 2014 he had jetted out to his five-bedroom villa in Estepona, 18 miles down the coast from Marbella, with Maria.
On the night of the murder, the couple had been out for dinner and Bush had asked Maria to marry him.
But they found Kukucova in Bush's bed and he had told his new partner to go to the car and phone the police, after his model ex refused to leave.
But, an argument broke out between Bush and Kukucova, then Maria heard three gunshots - and later found her partner in a pool of blood.
The inquest at Avon Coroner's Court in Bristol, ruled that Bush was murdered by Kukucova.
Maria, who runs a property business as well as being a singer and writer, was locked out and it took three hours to gain access. Once inside she discovered her lover's body.
Kukucova drove across Europe to her home town in Slovakia before handing herself in to police.
At trial she claimed she acted in self-defence but this was unanimously rejected by the jury.
The ordeal left Maria with depression for 18 months and she fears "dangerous" Kukucova will come after her when she is released.
I’m now worried she may come find me when she gets out. God knows what she is thinking. What is in her head?
Maria Korotaeva
Maria says: "It’s already been seven years. There’s not very long left until she comes out.
"I’m worried that she may come and find me. What stops her? Nothing. You can find me easily because of my social media."
After a brief stint in Tenerife and a short time living in the UK, Maria now lives in Russia where she wrote her story during lockdown.
She hopes the book will be released in Britain and give people "the truth" about what happened.
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Maria, who later got married but divorce two years later, described her late partner as "the love of my life".
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The couple had plans to move to London together after she had finished her degree at UWE in Bristol.
Bush also left behind an ex-wife, Samantha, and daughter, Ellie Mason Bush.
