BAL HARBOUR, Fla. – A client development manager at the Saks Fifth Avenue store at the Bal Harbour Shops was arrested earlier this week on accusations that he defrauded the store out of about $800,000, authorities said.
Peter Matthew Pagan, 34, of Miami, was taken into custody Tuesday on charges of grand theft, organized fraud and credit card forgery/intent to defraud.
Recommended Videos
According to his arrest report, Saks Fifth Avenue’s corporate office in New York conducted an internal investigation and found that Pagan, over the course of two years, had fraudulently obtained gift cards that he would resell or make purchases with, causing about $800,000 in losses to the company.
Bal Harbour Village police said a Saks Fifth Avenue investigative analyst discovered that two gift cards were used for one transaction, which was suspicious to the company and led them to open an investigation to find the source of the gift cards.
Police said the company discovered that Pagan would obtain the gift cards that were supposed to be for special promotional events, override the value amounts and then resell the gift cards at a lower amount than the value.
According to the arrest report, Pagan’s position at the company allowed him “to have access to the locations and computer systems necessary to obtain the gift cards.”
Pagan is being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center in lieu of a $25,000 bond.