Saks clients complained about stylist long before he was accused of $400,000 scam

Boston's self-proclaimed Fashion Whisperer continued to dress the wealthy long after several clients questioned mysterious charges on their credit cards

- Suzanne Kapner

Saks is struggling financially and has missed payments to suppliers.

(BLOOMBERG)

Zach Haroutunian was a student in Boston in 2014 when he began frequenting Saks Fifth Avenue for Balenciaga sneakers, Dolce & Gabbana bags and other designer clothes. He became a client of one of the store’s top stylists—Suhail Kwatra, The two became friends, sometimes going to dinner and galas together.

About three years into the relationship, Haroutunian—who now runs a private investment firm—said he noticed charges on his account for items he had never purchased. Haroutunian said he confronted Kwatra, who told him it was an administrative error and blamed his assistant. The questionable charges kept appearing and eventually snowballed into hundreds of thousands of dollars, Haroutunian said.

Haroutunian said he took his concerns to the store’s management and even sent an email to Marc Metrick, the chief executive of Saks Global, the parent of the Saks and Neiman Marcus chains, but got no response.

“[raised very clear red flags, and they did nothing,” Haroutunian said in an interview.

Kwatra’s spokesman, Joe Baerlein, called Haroutunian’s assertions false and said he was an outof-control impulse shopper.

“He can call me anything he wants,” Haroutunian said. “But this problem happened with more than one person, and there are only so many excuses he can make.

A Saks Global spokeswoman said it hasn't reviewed all the incidents that The Wall Street Journal raised but said the company takes allegations of wrongdoing seriously. Metrick may not directly respond to all customer complaints, she added, but the company addresses all issues that are escalated to management.