Break-ups are ugly. But not every tale of spurned love ends with a Mercedes sitting at the bottom of a swimming pool.

Russian model Kristina Kuchma, who was dumped by US stock trader Guy Gentile, 41, was said to have done just that, driving her ex-lover's car into the pool in his backyard, reported the New York Post.

The couple was at dinner near his Bahamas home with a friend when Ms Kuchma, 24, said she was "pregnant" - not with a child, but with a business idea.

Mr Gentile, who runs a Bahamas-based brokerage, said she asked him for US$50,000 (S$67,500) to start a marketing business.

Mr Gentile, who was involved in a Wall Street pump-and-dump scheme in 2007 but became a Federal Bureau of Investigation informant to beat the charges, then decided to end their 11/2-year relationship, according to the Post.

"I said, 'You know what? You got the wrong guy. If you want a guy who's going to hand you money for nothing, you got the wrong guy,' " he reportedly said.

He added that Miss Kuchma then threw hot green tea in his face, an act he called "disrespectful".

He said she took his car keys before storming off. He claimed that he had already bought her a Gucci bag, a new iPhone and Beats headphones for her birthday.

"Lier!" Ms Kuchma texted him on Saturday night. She meant to say "liar" but had spelt it wrongly.

"You told me you will help me to start a business! That (sic) were your words! Now you want to be an investor??? Well investor I have a surprise for you on a backyard, start with that investment idea first."

Mr Gentile returned home the next morning to find his US$55,000 Mercedes S400 hybrid car in the pool, and initially feared Ms Kuchma was inside it.

"But after I realised she wasn't in it, then I start to get pissed off that she would pull something like this after everything I've done for her," he said. "I dumped her. She dumped my car."

Police has confirmed with the Post that a report had been lodged over the incident.

Mr Gentile told the police that Ms Kuchma was the only other person with access to the car, which took a work crew over four hours to get out of its watery grave.