Palm Beach Boutique Owner Arrested After Police Say Counterfeit Jewelry Sold: Know More Here

A longtime proprietor of a jewellery business on Worth Avenue, the world’s greatest shopping destination, was arrested by Palm Beach police for selling counterfeit designer products that, if true, might fetch up to $2 million.

For eight months, police surveilled Olena Austin’s two Black Jewelry stores after receiving a tip from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The two businesses were raided on Thursday night.

“This is some of the cash we seized last night — it was about $4,900. You have everything from some counterfeit Rolexes that you see here to some usually recognizable Van Cleef and Arpels with the four-leaf clovers; some Tiffany items with the links,” said Capt. Will Rothrock.

After receiving a tip from the FBI in October, police started looking into Austin’s two Palm Beach establishments, one on South County Road and the other on Worth Avenue.

“Is this real Pucci?” an undercover detective allegedly asked a worker, to which the worker replied “Yes.” However, it was discovered through a check with a Pucci representative that the $415 shirt Blesk sold was fake.

Additionally, according to agents, they paid $694 for Chanel earrings and $500 for a Van Cleef and Arpels bracelet, both of which turned out to be fake.

Even if those designers were real, Blesk isn’t allowed to sell them, it was later discovered.

Austin was staring out into the courtroom as if she was searching for her husband there.

She has owned Blesk jewellery for eleven years and has no criminal history.

Her spouse walked out of the jail without saying anything.

“We had to use professional authenticators to verify and tell us these things were counterfeit, so I think a reasonable person that was shopping would be duped into buying something they thought was real and was not,” Rothrock said.

According to Rothrock, there’s also a good chance that some consumers were aware they were purchasing fake goods.

He indicated that while they continue to inventory the roughly 800 seized items, more charges might be expected.