Local auction house ships counterfeit items, scams thousands from bidders

SHERIDAN — A local business hosting online auctions for vintage luxury items including jewelry and designer bags, Maison de Luxe, LLC, claims in its tagline to be “the house where luxury lives.” Reviews and shared experiences from auction bidders near and far suggest items won in the company’s auctions are far from luxurious, if the items exist at all.
 
The Maison de Luxe Auction House website, lemaisonauctions.com, is mostly barren with the only contact options being an email account and two street addresses, one a business suite at 1309 Coffeen Ave. and one an office located in La Jolla, California.
 
Of the 12 reviews on Google, one user named Hippie man claims to frequently get great deals on vintage luxury items from the service — the remaining 11 reviews claim the business is a scam with some losing thousands of dollars to receive counterfeit jewelry. The top question associated with the business left by a user named Vineta Srivastava reads, “How can we take them to court?”
 
Maison de Luxe, LLC has one consumer complaint through the Better Business Bureau claiming the user won jewelry items advertised as 14 karat gold, silver, Kingman turquoise and diamond in an auction. What they received instead was described as costume jewelry similar in appearance to what was advertised. Neither the complainant nor BBB were able to obtain a response from Maison de Luxe regarding the complaint.
 
In an email from Maison de Luxe shared by another victim of the company, Maison de Luxe reached out to winners of a Feb. 10 auction indicating items were not being shipped because employees of Maison de Luxe had been victimized by a “heinously brutal assault.” The email did not specify whether the alleged assault occurred at the Sheridan office or the La Jolla office, but police reports in both locations indicate no such assault was reported.
 
The company’s Wyoming limited liability company registration, filed Sept. 14, 2021, utilized Cloud Peak Law Group as a registered agent. A business by a similar name, Maison de Luxe Interiors, LLC, was registered to 30 N. Gould St. and was administratively dissolved Dec. 9, 2022 for failure to file required license tax paperwork.
 
Sheridan Police Department Capt. Tom Ringley said SPD has received one complaint of fraud regarding Maison de Luxe, filed Aug. 5, 2022. The complaint came from a victim in New Jersey who alleged he spent $44,875.97 in an auction and received a fake watch and assorted counterfeit jewelry instead of the luxury items advertised.
 
Because the victim was located out of state and the business operates online, Ringley said SPD was unable to bring anyone to justice as it couldn’t be proved that a crime was committed in Sheridan. Ringley said the use of registered agents to establish businesses in Wyoming complies with Wyoming state statutes, further complicating the ability to seek justice for victims of scams such as this.
 
Ringley said the best way for consumers to protect themselves from scam businesses is to do plenty of research, starting with looking up businesses on BBB.
 
Representatives of Maison de Luxe, LLC did not respond to a request for comment.
 
This story was published on March 11, 2023.