WHATEVER HAPPENED TO DINA WEIN REIS
DINA WEIN REIS
BY SNN.BZ STAFF
Thieving Socialite’s Reign of Terror: Dina Wein Reis – The GREY MARKET Queen
In 2008, I worked in Dina Wein Reis’s 12,000-square-foot Riverside Drive mansion, a glittering facade for her $80–$100 million fraud scheme defrauding companies like Revlon and Pfizer. Hired as a “Personal Assistant” but treated as a servant, I hid a secret: I was a credentialed writer with an NYPD Press Pass, issued by the NYPD Press Office at One Police Plaza.
I still hold that very press pass today, a relic of a time when discovery could have meant danger if my employer had found out abou it. And the answer is “no” for those that ask if I was one of the people that actually turned her in to the authorities. I was not. Her close long termed employees and a few business associates had already turned her in by the time she hired me. At the time, I didn’t actually know who she was.
Reis’s arrest that October ended her empire, but not before many endured her cruelty, saw her husband’s exploitation, and witnessed an FBI raid. In 2025, Reis supposedly runs Reis Magazine, a faint rebrand but I can’t even find the magazine online. My memories reveal a socialite who thrived on fear and ridicule. I put in a call to her old hair dresser but the call went unanswered. I was impressed that her hair dresser has such positive memories of her.
Reis’s mansion, with Tiffany stained glass and Warhol paintings, was her stage for the “National Distribution Program,” reselling discounted goods meant for fictional charities. She lured executives with job promises, using women to charm CEOs, (per Fortune). As an errand runner, I was excluded from her cliques but saw her employees’ hatred for her.
And speaking of the mansion – it’s still for sale! It’s available for a mere $55 Million
Reis fired staff for attending funerals, (per New York Magazine), or for breaking a leg. That irreverant attitude she had for manking fueled a strong resentment. My NYPD Press Pass had been issued to SyndicatedNews as was the practice at the time. Now, press passes are issued by MOME (the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment). I knew I could have exposed her just for the way she berated her staff over insignificant reasons, but she paid well. I had planned to stay until my own resentment was noticeable to me. As the weeks passed, it was clear she was a fraud. In the short time I worked for her, I wondered how far she’d go to protect her lies. I jokingly thought to myself, “She may clock one of us over the head.”
Her hypocrisy was blatant. Reis donned a man’s yarmulke, davened while forcing employees to stand at attention in her presence, then she’d toss it all aside demanding we swap the nameplates on the doors to reflect one or two of her 228+ shell companies to reflect whomever they were making believe they were on that particular day. The shell companies were lies to “fool men she was going to rob,” an employee once muttered to me as we passed in the hall.
They once sent me to her 57th Street operation which most didn’t know she was even connected to. She had mostly Hispanic and Orthodox women taping over details of Hewlett Packard printer boxes to hide the toxicity level in the ink (that was the reason they were prohibited for sale in the US). She sold those printers to tourist shops on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.
The pious-fraud contrast mocked faith was one of the core reasons her employees ratted on her. One stormy night, she sent me to a dangerous Brooklyn neighborhood via the L train for a $19.88 eyeliner.
Braving torrential rain and street floods where the gutters were stuffed with garbage, I arrived at the shop, picked up the eyeliner and it was already packaged with change for a $20 dollar bill (the 12 cents change).
At 11 PM that night, Reis called, demanding the change – and she wanted it tonight. Soaked, I imagined confronting her but stayed silent, but it gave me a fast flash understanding as to why her employees’ despised her. Yes, she made me brave that weather to bring her twelve cents.
She had mentioned her husband was an athlete and his face gave away that he was Hispanic and when he spoke Spanish, I knew he was Colombian. David Ruiz/Reis, her husband, tried to avoid speaking Spanish in front of me but I had already heard him speaking to the day laborers.
He’d often park his van under the elevated train in Rego Park, Queens and pick up as many men as he could fit in his van. They were illegal alien day workers, despite New York’s 2008 weekly illegal labor crackdowns. Sometimes they did actual construction jobs and repairs but more often than not, they were stocking the fake New Jersey grocery store with the products Dina had convinced businessmen that she was show casing on her store network which actually consisted of one store. The store was a fake “show case” grocery store.
Fridays, David would hire illegal day workers, pay them in cash and offered them cots to sleep on in the mansion’s basement. I delivered sandwiches once, their weary sweaty heads made you feel sorry for them. They may have had the world’s luxuries and treasuries upstairs but the basement was very “third world.”
Reis claimed David was an athlete in his native Colombia but no records confirmed it then or now. It was probably just another promo line similar to the ones she said about anything that would make her cheesy illegal operation seem legitimate. She often spoke of her Orthodox ties and connections to high level rabbis and temples (I actually lived in a rabbi’s home–an attached studio apartment–and they had never heard of her.
On one October morning, when arriving to work, my instincts spotted armed agents in knit caps, earpieces curling from their necks. A 6’7” officer sprinted over to me with his finger held up to his lips. He waved for me not to knock on the door or say anything. He gestured me to back down the stairs without making a sound.
He communicated to me with hand gestures. He meant, “Don’t knock, shut up, and back up.” Another officer caught me by the elbow and led me away. I don’t remember if he was FBI or NYPD. I happened to look to my left and caught a glimpse of David’s shame-filled eyes—Dina was arrested that day. Her stolen empire had collapsed. She dropped to the floor in a faint (trying to get out of the arrest) but they handcuffed her and off she went. After the medical exam – they took her to jail and processed her. They had apparently been at her accomplices homes at the exact time arresting them as well.
Reis’s scheme defrauded $20 million, using shell companies. Her cruelty backfired when a whistleblower exposed her. In 2011, she pleaded guilty to wire fraud, served 19 months in 2013, with $5.7 million in restitution. She apologized, claiming change, but skeptics remained.
Since 2014, Reis has been quiet, launching Reis Magazine in 2017 for fashion and culture. As its publisher, she claims to design for “beautifulgirls,” but unverified ties to Oscar de la Renta echo her lies. The magazine’s LinkedIn mentions “buying excess inventory”—like her scam. No 2024–2025 posts suggest dormancy. Her Reis Family Trust holds her $55 million mansion, unsold after a 2024 price cut.
A 2024 blog comment claimed she joined Florida’s socialite scene, but Miami’s fashion outlets show no trace. Her last post was 2017, her social media silent. She never mentioned Florida to me, though I delivered a package for a Florida address.
Reis Magazine is another shell company—a facade. In 2008, her lame prayers, David’s exploitation of illegals, and my storm-soaked errand revealed Dina was a woman ruling by fear. The raid, with David’s shamed eyes, sealed her fall.
Hiding my Press Pass taught me to navigate danger with silence—a lesson from those 12 cents and silent agents. In 2025, Reis remains a cautionary tale. Will she reinvent herself? For those who survived her, the answer lies in the cots and discarded yarmulkes.
