Saks Employee Arrested for Alleged Gift Card Scam

by Bee-Shyuan Chang (Subscribe to Bee-Shyuan Chang's posts)
Posted Nov 10th 2009 at 1:55PM

Saks employee was arrested for allegedly stealing $130,000 through gift card scam. Photo: Brian Ach, Getty Images for IMG.

Saks Fifth Avenue is having financial issues, but surprisingly, the economy is not to blame for this one. Instead, it's looking like employees have been caught stealing from their high-end department store employer.

Saks sales associate Kashien Mercer was arrested by the Manhattan DA on charges of grand larceny, reports the New York Post.

Authorities said that Mercer had allegedly been ringing up "returns" on items stolen from the company's Fifth Avenue flagship in NYC to the tune of $130,000.

Surveillance video captured the 23-year-old crediting the various amounts to an electronic gift card which he then kept for himself, according to the paper.

And it appears Mercer isn't alone in his alleged swindling efforts. Authorities said two other Saks employees were arrested for similar schemes just two weeks prior.

One rang up $169,000 in illegal credit, while the other was small-time, in comparison, pocketing $10,000, reports the paper.

The retailer is not alone. This customer service employee supposedly stole $12,000 worth of designer shoes on the job.

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Filed under: News
Tags: arrests, department stores, DepartmentStores, employee stealing, EmployeeStealing, gift cards, GiftCards, Manhattan DA, ManhattanDa, Saks Fifth Avenue, SaksFifthAvenue

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READER COMMENTS

(4)Add A Comment

Mossad911, 11-12-2009, 3:27AM

I am really surprised that the media has seemingly not caught on to Saks Fifth Avenue's seemingly in-your-face antics. First they accused their former top-salesperson of stealing $1.4 million in credits/returns (again returns, do you see a pattern here, people?), who gets acquitted of this major charge and convicted of the lesser charges of earning $48,000 in commissions and falsification of business records, she was sentenced to 90 days in jail etc., buy an appellate judge immediately stays her sentence? Now, another salesperson again allegedly caught of stealing $130,000 in again "returns"...Where are the internal controls of this public traded company? Let's not forget this is the company who PLED GUILTY to "illegally cheating" their own vendors through "illegal markdown money". Don Watros then a Saks finance exec, who has resurfaced as the CFO of Lord & Taylor, and Brian Martin, then legal counsel and brother of ex-Chairman & ex-CEO, R. Brad Martin, both men admitted to involvement in this scheme and were asked to step down...Step down? Why weren't these two men indicted by NY prosecutors? There is a special unit in the NY prosecutor's office that is devoted to Saks only. That's right at the expense of NY state taxpayers...A Federal judge then ordered Saks to pay appx $48 Million in fines and interest, then the SEC indicted Saks to which they also pled guilty to and were sentenced to probation...It seems to indicate that Saks has a seemingly bizarre corporate culture of corruption perhaps, for lack of a better word? Interestingly, this yet another "theft" again comes in the wake of stating their year end earnings, or perhaps what seems to be a lack thereof? I would wait for all the facts before making any judgement about this last string of "thefts", I believe there were two other salespeople as stated in the NY Post article. Isn't Saks a big advertiser with the NY Post? Hmnnn....thinking...thinking...

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iluvmldr, 11-14-2009, 10:53PM

Theft by retail employees happens ALL the time and picking up a random item and returning it through the register for either cash or credit is basic retail theft 101. The real question here is where is Saks LP department. If there is a gift card floating around with $100,000+ on it, why weren't they tracking it. How was this associate processing returns on a register without a customer in front of them. These stores have cameras pointed at every single register in the store. Somebody was looking the other way.

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tizzleallstar, 11-14-2009, 11:29PM

heres an idea for aol. these spammers on here and its an easy idea or solution. these people have to pay or they have to register from an ip number therefore you ban that credit card account or ip number from having or being allowed to post on here. pleased aol show us money isnt more important then keeping your customers you do have.

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V DIDDY, 11-14-2009, 11:58PM

I used to work for Saks LP and the company and its LP department are nothng short of a bad joke. Around inventory time, Saks has found employees stealing 'small-time' items like a MAC lipstick and then charged said employee with theft of thousands of dollars worth of items missing from their inventory list...of which they had no proof. It sickened me. I was fired around inventory time for a policy violation and they even flew in their big wig LP people to attempt to do the same to me. Thank GOD I knew their scare tactics and games and did not fall for their empty and unfounded threats and walked out on the 'interview'. I deserved what I got from them for not sticking up for the people who were wrongly prosecuted when I could have. Lesson learned!

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