A Boston-based former Saks Fifth Avenue stylist, Suhail Kwatra, was indicted on a single count of larceny after Saks accused him of stealing about $429,400 through alleged fraudulent refunds, misuse of promo cards, unpaid charges on a corporate card, and givin
Suhail Kwatra once built his career around trust—one-on-one shopping trips and styling advice for clients drawn to Saks Fifth Avenue and its world of high-end social events. On Thursday. that image was replaced by a court charge after he was indicted on a single count of larceny tied to allegations that he stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from the luxury retailer.
Kwatra. 43. is accused of taking part in what authorities described as a long-running scheme involving several tactics: making fraudulent refunds. mismanaging “promo cards. ” giving unpaid merchandise to clients. and abusing his corporate card. In a complaint filed in Boston Municipal Court last December, Saks staff estimated the loss at about $429,400.
Kwatra is scheduled for arraignment July 14 on a charge of committing a single scheme of larceny exceeding $1,200.
His legal fight with Saks is older than the indictment. Earlier this year, Kwatra filed his own lawsuit against the retailer. He alleged Saks’ claims were part of a “vindictive and unlawful scheme” meant to publicly ruin him and “ensure that he could not take his talents. clients. or relationships elsewhere.”.
In that complaint. Kwatra argued that Saks reacted aggressively after he was considering an opportunity with a competing luxury retailer and after he declined to accept a retention bonus without assurances about his future global role. He said Saks responded not with negotiation, but with retaliation.
The dispute also turns on what Saks told law enforcement and what Kwatra says he was made to do. The retailer provided Boston police with a handwritten letter in which Kwatra allegedly apologized. revealed the extent of his scheme. and agreed to pay the money back. Kwatra, however, maintains the company coerced him into signing.
His lawsuit frames the central contradiction: if he was only a former stylist, why would Saks, he asks, spend “extraordinary resources” against him. He wrote that Saks’ focus on his departure posed what he described as an “existential threat” to the company’s business relationships.
Kwatra’s lawsuit has been on hold since January after Saks filed for bankruptcy. even as the criminal case has moved forward. For now. the indictment sets a new timetable—one that brings the allegations back into a courtroom process. with the date for his next court appearance already set for July 14.
The sequence of filings—Saks’ December complaint estimating a $429. 400 loss. Kwatra’s own lawsuit alleging a retaliatory campaign. and Saks’ bankruptcy filing that paused his civil case—has left the story centered on competing accounts of the same conduct. One side describes a scheme designed to extract money from the retailer; the other argues he was targeted and forced into admissions. Both claims now point toward what a judge will hear next.
Suhail Kwatra Saks Fifth Avenue larceny indictment Boston Municipal Court corporate card promo cards fraudulent refunds bankruptcy retail theft