Dina Wein-Reis - Biography

Dina Wein-Reis (born 1964) is an American businesswoman and alleged confidence trickster.

Personal life

Wein-Reis was born in Midwood, Brooklyn in 1964 to a businessman and a teacher. After graduating from Bnos Leah Prospect Park Yeshiva in 1981, she attended Brooklyn College, but did not graduate. There, she met her husband, David Ruiz, who later converted to Judaism and changed his name to Reis. She graduated from Empire State College in 1987. The Reises have three sons.

Fraud Conviction

For over a decade, Wein-Reis' company had tricked manufacturers into selling her merchandise at a low price. She and her associates would call company executives with an offer of a high-paying job. Then, she would ask an executive to send her a shipment of merchandise, and she promised access to lucrative markets through her "National Distribution Program," which did not actually exist. Instead of handing out samples for free as stated, she would sell the products to middlemen who then sold them to retailers, in a practice known as product diversion. Diversion is not necessarily illegal (see Quality King v. L'anza), but in Wein-Reis' case, the diversion involved fraud.

In October 2008, she was arrested for conspiracy and wire fraud. The police took much of her personal property, as the search warrant authorized them to seize the "fruits of the crime." However, a judge later ordered some of the seized property to be returned.

On May 19, 2011, Wein-Reis pled guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. In a reported plea deal with federal prosecutors, Wein-Reis agreed to pay $7 million in restitution to her victims and would serve approximately 31 months out of possible 5-year sentence in federal prison.

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