She gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to yeshivas. She donated money to terror victims in Israel. She was close to Marvin Schick. And Dina Wein Reis allegedly bilked major corporations out of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Dina Wein Reis enlisted her rabbi in her bid to convince a judge that she should not be required to wear an electronic monitoring ankle bracelet. Orthodox practice, the rabbi said, forbids women from wearing slacks or pantsuits. Summer was coming, Wein Reis's lawyer noted, and any skirt or dress shorter than ankle length would reveal the bracelet, which would complicate her efforts to get a new job. The judge agreed.
Some executives thought it was their lucky day when Dina Wein Reis called with a lucrative proposition. It wasn't.
By James Bandler with Doris Burke
(Fortune Magazine) -- Just before dawn last October, around 50 federal law enforcement officials mustered in front of a six-story Beaux Arts townhouse on Manhattan's Upper West Side.
The agents, wearing blue raid jackets, stood in the rain outside the home of 45-year-old Dina Wein Reis, a self-described businesswoman, film producer, and philanthropist. For at least 15 years Wein Reis had made a fortune by allegedly gulling dozens of consumer product giants, including Procter & Gamble, Unilever, and Hershey, in exquisitely orchestrated scams.
"We're here to execute a search warrant," an FBI agent said.…
[Hat Tips: Seymour, Yankel.]