Santa Fe skincare shop and owner removed from lawsuit

Dec. 27—A Santa Fe man and his business are no longer defendants in a pending lawsuit that alleges downtown Santa Fe skincare shops have scammed tourists out of tens of thousands of dollars.

Moshe Palgir and his business EPP5 Inc. — which includes the brand names Queen Bee, Nova Spa and Urban Calm — were recently dismissed from the lawsuit brought by three out-of-state women in October. The women alleged they were scammed by salespeople at shops on West San Francisco Street.

The women allege they were lured into one of the shops by aggressive salespeople who then misled them and charged their credit cards for amounts up to $64,000.

A Dec. 18 motion from the three plaintiffs dismissed any claims against Palgir and his company, stating “any claims have been resolved between the parties.”

Palgir’s attorney said he and his business have for years been wrongly associated with those run by another man named Sahar Hori.

Hori and his business SHM Group 2019 Inc. are listed as defendants in the women’s lawsuit as well as in another lawsuit brought by the state Department of Justice earlier this year. Hori’s business includes the brand Santa Fe Spa Center by Voupre, which the attorney general alleges has violated the Unfair Trade Practices Act by misleading customers and charging them for products they didn’t agree to.

“My client has no relationship whatsoever to Sahar Hori,” Palgir’s attorney Itai Klein wrote in an email. “In fact, Hori has at times misrepresented himself to the public as my client’s business and has caused quite a bit of headache to my client since it opened its operations in Santa Fe [about] five years ago.”

Palgir and his shop — which sits less than a block from Hori’s — have been in Santa Fe for almost 10 years, Klein wrote. Both shops have been known to have salespeople greeting passersby outside the stores.

Hori and his attorney did not return calls seeking comment Friday.

Santa Fe attorney John Day, who is representing the three out-of-state plaintiffs in the lawsuit, declined to comment further on the dismissal. He said Friday the litigation is still moving forward and “aggressively pursuing the claim on behalf of the people who were scammed.”

The civil case was moved to federal court in November, due to the plaintiffs living outside New Mexico as well as the amount of money in dispute. Day said more victims of the alleged scam have come forward since the lawsuit was filed in October, but he declined to say how many.

In responses filed in both lawsuits, Hori has denied the allegations that his salespeople have repeatedly preyed upon tourists with fraudulent credit card charges.

In a court filing, Hori’s attorney indicated Santa Fe police in May began investigating other allegations of credit card fraud at Santa Fe Spa Center by Voupre made by a couple visiting Santa Fe from out of state. A judge in June signed a search warrant for Hori’s shop at 203B San Francisco Street, but investigators have not executed the warrant, Hori’s attorney wrote.

He also pointed to a May letter Hori received from a special agent from the New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department that indicated the agency was investigating Hori for potential tax fraud.

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