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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 relief funds to an investment bank he co-owns.
‘This was among over $1.6 million allegedly transferred on account of monies loaned by Bernstein in the few months leading up to the Debtor’s bankruptcy filing,’ Geron’s lawyers said.
‘This type of activity alone warrants a full investigation of the Debtor’s financial affairs and conduct of its management.’
Bernstein’s company went bankrupt in August 2020, and has now been bought by Flying Zebra
Manhattan federal bankruptcy Judge Michael Wiles granted Geron permission to subpoena Bernstein and his colleagues.
In November, Judge Wiles had agreed to a Chapter 11 reorganization plan.
Under the deal, the IRS, which is owed $795,532, will be paid all of the proceeds from the $650,000 sale of JetReady to the Flying Zebra charter company.
Bernstein will pay $120,000 in administrative expenses.
Yet his other creditors – among them the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which submitted a claim for $45,579 in unpaid landing fees – are still seeking their money.
Bernstein has not commented on his bankruptcy proceedings.
He may also face charges of lying about the value of the watch, with a Spanish judge set to review the police report and incident.
Seth Bernstein, 46, was mugged in Barcelona in front of four of his five children on June 2 as they walked down a street outside their five star hotel. He is shown with his wife Marie and their children. He told DailyMail.com he is being unfairly treated as a criminal when he is the victim of a crime
The $500-a-night Mercer Hotel in Barcelona where he was staying with his family
He says he bid for it at a charity auction six years ago for his 40th birthday, then insured it along with his ‘many’ other watches, but that it’s unimportant to him.
Bernstein said the watch is insured as are all of his pieces, and that he’ll let the insurance company decide what the real value of it is.
He maintains that the Spanish police were ‘rude’ to him from the beginning and that he was never considered a victim when he should have been.
‘I am the victim here, I was mugged in front of my children on what was supposed to be a happy vacation.
‘My kids are hysterically crying. What did I do wrong? I had my watch stolen.
‘It’s like I’m the bad guy here,’ he said from Sweden, where he is rounding out his European vacation with his wife’s family.
Bernstein says he is most frustrated with Spanish police for issuing surveillance footage of the mugging, in which his terrified kids appear.
He says he would never have lied to police about the value of the watch – something that can be easily disproven by insurance investigations – and that he is being made the scapegoat to distract from the ’embarrassment’ of the Spanish police that they can’t crackdown on crime.
‘Nobody did anything. If this had been in England at The Dorchester, three guys would have tackled the thief.’
Bernstein says he wishes the Spanish police would focus on the crime itself.
He says he regrets going to the police.
‘They should be focusing on the crime in their city and not on trying to target tourists,’ he said.
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