Friday 17 June 2022 05:13 AM American millionaire who said watch stolen by Barcelona mugger was $800K is ... trends now
An American tourist suspected of exaggerating the value of his Hublot watch, stolen by muggers in Barcelona, in a bid to swindle the insurance firm is being investigated over $1.6 million in suspicious bank transfers shortly before his private jet company went bankrupt.
Seth Bernstein, 46, from Florida, was on vacation in the Spanish city with his wife and children when he was mugged on June 2.
Surveillance camera footage released by the Spanish police shows the gang setting on Bernstein from behind and ripping the watch from his wrist, as four of his five children looked on.
Spanish police said that Bernstein told them his watch was worth $800,000, but the Swiss watch company said it was valued at $45,000. Bernstein told DailyMail.com he had no idea how much it cost, but said $80,000 to give the police a ballpark figure.
On Thursday it emerged that Bernstein was being investigated by the trustee overseeing the August 2020 bankruptcy of his charter jet company, JetReady.
Bernstein and his wife Marie at a 2018 charity gala. He says the stolen watch is one of many that he owns and that he doesn't remember how much he paid for it when he bid for it
Bernstein was walking down the street with his kids on Tuesday June 2 when the mugger approached him from behind. He says the thief produced a knife and slashed his watch off his wrist, then ran away
Bernstein says his four kids who witnessed the mugging are traumatized and haven't stopped crying
He was also investigated for misuse of COVID relief funds, and settled with the Department of Justice in August 2021 for $287,055.
Bernstein told DailyMail.com it was an 'accounting error' and that the matter was settled.
'It was an accounting error and it was settled civilly, I was not charged criminally,' he said.
A Hublot watch. Bernstein says he told cops his was worth around $80,000 but that he doesn't actually remember how much he paid for it at auction six years ago. Police say he told them $800,000
The bankruptcy case remains active, however, and Yann Geron, the attorney representing Bernstein's creditors, last month won the right to subpoena Bernstein and other JetReady insiders.
The company went bankrupt owing 43 creditors a total of nearly $5.7 million in unsecured debt, according to court papers obtained by The New York Post.
Geron said in his filing that Bernstein has been 'credibly' accused of funneling $1 million in federal COVID-19
