This lawsuit alleges that after Suhail Kwatra explored a new career opportunity outside Saks — and declined to accept a retention bonus without assurances about his future role with Saks Fifth Avenue, the company retaliated through intimidation, coercion, and false accusations.  The lawsuit alleges that once Saks learned that Suhail may leave to join a competitor, they sought to ruin his reputation and blame him for longstanding management practices and Saks’ billing issues that were outside of his control.

An excerpt from Boston Magazine - March of 2026:

“The hearing did not go well for the state……Kwatra’s criminal defense attorney, Joseph Eisenstadt, demanded to see the specific evidence to support the more than $429,000 Saks figure---and Judge Treseler agreed. Saks had turned over video evidence and records from three transactions, purportedly totaling more than $11,000 in fraud, but nothing else. “It looks like an $11,000 case right now,” the Judge said, questioning the state’s evidence---as if “someone just threw a $429,000 figure out there….you come up with that big number, and you have to explain the big number and explain where that number came from.” 

The prosecutor conceded that Saks had not yet provided the state with any additional evidence. 

Saks has alleged that Suhail Kwatra participated in a “scheme” involving hundreds of thousands of dollars in gift cards. That allegation is false, as demonstrated in Suhail’s complaint

The reality:

• Saks regularly ran promotional gift-card programs to incentivize large purchases and that perk was offered to other Saks stylists

• Saks managers authorized “accommodation” gift cards to retain high-spending clients

• Only managers — not Kwatra — could create gift cards using Saks’ internal systems

• Kwatra and other stylists from the Saks Fifth Avenue Club followed long-standing, management-approved practices that were openly encouraged by Saks supervisors

On November 18, 2025, while Kwatra was in the middle of a private appointment with a top client, two members of Saks’ Asset Protection team escorted him to a secluded office with a locked door.

According to the complaint:

• Kwatra was interrogated

• He was not allowed to leave

• He was threatened with reputational destruction and criminal consequences

Immediately after obtaining Kwatra’s signature, Saks allegedly:

• Suspended and then terminated his employment

• Contacted the Boston Police Department

• Interfered with a pending job offer from a competing luxury retailer

• Contacted his clients to reassign them to other Saks stylists

Kwatra has filed suit in Massachusetts Superior Court asserting claims including:

• Declaratory Relief (seeking a ruling that the promissory note is void and unenforceable)

• Fraudulent Inducement

• Breach of Contract

• Tortious Interference with Employment

• Defamation

The lawsuit alleges that Saks knowingly mischaracterized coerced estimates made by the Saks Asset Protection Team as a criminal confession and acted with actual malice to destroy Kwatra’s reputation and career.

This case is NOT about theft.
It is NOT about a “gift card scam.”
It is NOT about criminal conduct.