Style & the Street: Fallen Fashionista Dina Wein-Reis

The Trials and Tribulations of Former Fashionista & Fallen Society Woman Dina Wein-Reis

By Joan R. Magee

February 11, 2009

NEW YORK – A woman charged with siphoning $80 million from charities now says the Feds are thieves after authorities seized artwork and luxury goods from her $35 million mansion in Manhattan. Dina Wein-Reis, a 44-year-old mother of three, is accused of courting Fortune 500 executives to convince them to sell her bargain basement priced products so she could then use of proceeds to help charities. Prosecutors maintain instead that Mrs. Wein-Reis sold the goods at on “the gray market” at inflated prices to garner an alleged $80 million for her shell companies.

In total, Mrs. Wein-Reis has $100 million in private assets, with $6.5 million in cash, according to a November 5 court document. She also owns seven homes, including a mansion at W. 75 Street and Riverside Drive, an apartment on W. 83 Street, a vacation home in Westhampton and a Florida condo, according to real estate records.

In late October 2008, Mrs. Wein-Reis and five others were indicted in Indiana on fraud charges. Though New York is where most of the alleged crimes happened, Indiana is the incorporation state for most of the companies with which she dealt. Mrs. Wein-Reis has pushed to have her trial in her home state of New York, and it is still being debated.

She is currently being held on a $10 million bond and the value of three of her homes.

In late January 2009, Mrs. Wein-Reis filed a motion through her lawyer, John Meringolo, contending that her voluminous art collection was “improperly seized,” from her Riverside Drive mansion as part of the federal investigation. Her collection includes Robert Motherwells, Frank Stellas, Egon Schieles, and an original portrait of Truman Capote done by Andy Warhol. She also asked that 27 of her bank accounts be unfrozen. In addition, she requested the return of her Montblancs, a Rolex collection, necklaces, bracelets, earrings and cufflinks from Tiffany, Cartier and Chopard, as well as her wedding and engagement rings.

In court documents, Wein-Reis asserted that the warrant to confiscate those items only held for things purchased through her alleged chicanery. She contended however that not all the items were directly linked to her business dealings.

“Those pieces of art alone would be worth close to $30 million,” Janet Myers, a private art dealer in New York said. “It’s typical to have art collections seized if criminal activity is suspected. I’ve had clients, whom I’m not at liberty to name, who have either had threats of that happening or had it happen.”

Meanwhile, over 20 character witnesses have been summoned to her trial, according to court documents. Whitney Museum Curator Barbara Haskell, for example, went on the record to defend her.

"I have always regarded Dina as a person who cared about others," Ms. Haskell wrote in a letter to New York federal judge Shira Scheindlin. "She certainly has cared about me. I am prepared to stand as a character witness should it be helpful to her.”

Mrs. Wein-Reis has made public statements that she’s endured panic attacks due to this federal investigation.

According to court documents, David Reis, her husband wrote to Judge Scheindlin: “Our three boys, Joshua, 18, Jacob 14, and Joseph, 8, are falling apart by the day. Dina is a great woman… She has helped the sick, needy and less fortunate."

Needless to say, Fortune 500 executives and prosecutors beg to differ.

At present, 50 companies have filed suit against Ms. Wein-Reis and her five other alleged accessories. One of strongest cases against Mrs. Wein-Reis comes from Roche Diagnostics Corp. of Indianapolis. In a lawsuit filed by Roche, the company alleged that “…firms owned by Wein-Reis fraudulently arranged to buy nearly $12 million worth of diabetes care products at a steep discount.”

Mrs. Wein-Reis instead apparently attempted to sell the essentially donated products to stores like Walgreens, which then informed Roche of the botched sale. Roche asked for $10 million in compensatory and $30 million in punitive damages. According to court documents, the parties settled privately and for an undisclosed amount of money, but that investigation was the tip of the iceberg. Some of the other companies include Balance Bar, Bausch & Lomb, Campbell's, Bic, Eastman Kodak, Gillette, Kraft, Nestle, Sara Lee, Unilever, among others.

If convicted, Mrs. Wein-Reis could serve up to 17 years in jail.

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