Kuciak worked as a reporter for the news website Aktuality.sk and focused mainly on investigating tax fraud of several businessmen with connections to top-level Slovak politicians.

[4] The murders caused shock and disbelief throughout the country, sparking mass popular protests and a political crisis,[5] with the government of Prime Minister Robert Fico on one side, and President Andrej Kiska and opposition parties on the other.

He particularly focused on cases of tax evasion, including ones related to the then-ruling party Direction - Social Democracy headed by PM Robert Fico.

[13] The most prominent subject of his articles was businessman Marian Kočner, who first became known in Slovakia in 1998 due to his unsuccessful attempt to take over the private television news network TV Markíza with the help of the Slovak Intelligence Service (SIS).

In his June 2017 articles, Kuciak described several discrepancies in the halted investigation of a case involving Kočner and the suspicious transfers of his hotels in Donovaly, which resulted in a €8 million VAT refund in 2010–2012.

[17] In a December 2017 article, Kuciak described suspicious activity in a legal case in which Kočner's firm IIDH was suing pharmaceutical distribution company Unipharma and its subsidiary for €45 million.

[18] In the last article published before his death, Kuciak wrote about suspicious transactions involving Kočner in the Bratislava apartment building Five Star Residence.

[27] Two days after Prime Minister Fico's resignation, an even larger demonstration was held in Bratislava with over 65,000 people participating under slogans such as "Enough of Smer" and "Early elections".

Former Speaker of Parliament and ex-presidential candidate František Mikloško made an impassioned speech during the protest saying that "the revolution started by the parents has to be finished by their children".

[32] During the press conference, they displayed packs of banknotes amounting to one million euros, which the government promised to give to anyone who came forward with relevant information that could help explain the murder.

[35] The article details the activities of Italian businessmen with ties to organised crime who have settled in eastern Slovakia, and have spent years embezzling European Union funds intended for the development of this relatively poor region, as well as their connections to high-ranking state officials, such as Viliam Jasaň, a deputy and the Secretary of the State Security Council of Slovakia, or Mária Trošková, a former nude model who became Chief Adviser of Prime Minister Robert Fico.

[36] On 1 March, four days after the discovery of the murders, heavily armed units from the Slovak Police Corps' elite National Crime Agency (NAKA) raided several locations in eastern Slovakia, in the cities of Michalovce and Trebišov.

[39] On the day of the arrests, General Prosecutor Jaromír Čižnár ordered the police to give no further updates to the press or the public regarding the investigation.

[43][44] On 17 September 2018 the prosecutor published a facial composite (identikit) of a person who allegedly could have been involved in the assassination, or may have information about people closely connected to the crime.

[50] On 4 October 2018, Lívia Kňažíková, the attorney of Zoltán Andruskó, confirmed that he was cooperating with police, and had named Marian Kočner as the individual ordering the killing.

[54] On 27 February, Freedom and Solidarity and OĽaNO demanded the resignation of Interior Minister Robert Kaliňák and Police President Tibor Gašpar.

[55] The crisis escalated on 4 March when President Kiska made a live broadcast on state television, warning the government against further polarising the country.

[58] Announcing his decision to the press, Maďarič stated that "as a culture minister, I can't cope with the fact that a journalist was killed during my tenure.

[62] The next day, Most-Híd joined the calls for snap elections, announcing that it would leave the government if it failed to reach a deal with its two coalition partners, Smer-SD and the Slovak National Party (SNS).

Most-Híd Chairman, Béla Bugár, announced the decision after an eight-hour session of the Most-Hid Republican Council, the party's decision-making body.

[63] On 14 March, following a meeting with President Kiska, Prime Minister Fico announced that he would resign to avoid early elections and "solve the political crisis".

[64] During the meeting, Fico laid out a number of specific conditions to be met by the President in order for him to resign, including that the result of the 2016 Slovak parliamentary election be respected, that the current ruling government coalition must continue, and that Smer-SD, as the largest party in parliament, would name the next prime minister.

[70] The trial of Marian Kočner, Alena Zsuzsová, Tomáš Szabó and Miroslav Marček began on 13 January 2020 at the Special Criminal Court in Pezinok.

[10] Following the verdict, Kočner remained in prison, having been sentenced by a first-degree court to 19 years in a case of forging of promissory notes involving Markíza - Slovakia.

President Zuzana Čaputová wrote on Facebook that she was shocked by the verdict and needed to understand its explanation, adding that she respected it but expected that the case would not end and would continue to the Supreme Court.

Prime Minister Igor Matovič stated on Facebook: "It seems that for now the apparent instigators of the murder would like to slip out of the clutches of justice… Let’s believe that justice will wait for them both.

[83][84] On 12 January 2021, the Supreme Court confirmed the sentence of 19 years and a €10,000 fine for Kočner in the case of forging of promissory notes involving Markíza - Slovakia.

Prime Minister Ľudovít Ódor stated that while he personally had mixed feelings about the verdict, he fully respected the decision of the court, adding that the road to justice would continue.

[123] Scumbag (Slovak: Sviňa) is a 2020 thriller directed by Mariana Čengel Solčanská and Rudolf Biermann, based on the novel of the same name by Arpád Soltész.

The film documents the investigation of the murder within the contemporary political and social context and the criminal proceedings up until the first-degree court's acquittal of Kočner and Zsuzsová.