TIMELINE: David Reiner

1973
Reiner first travels to Kenya for six weeks on a study tour.

1975
David Reiner graduates from Toronto's York University with a B.A. in geography.

1983
Reiner marries Arlene Anisman.

1989/1990
Reiner starts working with Maureen Myers of McMurrich Sprouts Daycare, the first of 43 Toronto daycares he will eventually keep books for.

1993
On or about July 26th 2004, Reiner and Anisman severs the joint tenancy of their Toronto home, holding the property as tenants in common until August 24th 2006. The house is transferred to Anisman on August 24, 2006.

1998
Gan Yeladim Day Care Centre contracts the services of David Reiner to work for them as a bookkeeper.

April 2000-February 2005
Reiner works for Toronto Police Service, Victim Services Program. He is fired after it is noticed that $8,030 was given to him to make payments that were never made. Reiner eventually pays back the money. No charges are laid.

July 2003
David Reiner is hired by the Stephen Lewis Foundation as a bookkeeper. His duties are to provide bookkeeping and payroll services, sign official tax receipts, and process credit card and auto debit donations. He does not have access to the funds of the Foundation.

March 2004
David Reiner travels to Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya on behalf of the Stephen Lewis Foundation for the purposes of auditing SLF-funded projects. This is the only visit to Africa that David Reiner conducted for the Stephen Lewis Foundation.

July 2004
Reiner is profiled in the York University newsletter, and cast as a "modern-day missionary" by his wife, for his work in Africa.

October 2005
The Stephen Lewis Foundation fires Reiner. Subsequent audits show that the Foundation's finances were not affected.

August 24, 2006
Reiner's wife buys out her husband's share of their house. Land title documents appear to reveal Reiner received $250,000 when he transferred the property.

September 2006
Gan Yeladim Day Care Centre determines Reiner has fraudulently embezzled approximately $17,000 in June, July and August of 2006 and they notify police.

September 10, 2006
Reiner's wife, Arlene Anisman, drives her husband to the airport. He tells her he is going to New York City to attend a 9/11 memorial ceremony.

September 11, 2006
Reiner sends letters of resignation to 21 of his daycare clients saying: "I have been under enormous pressure lately - both in my work and in my personal life. I feel that I am on the verge of a 'nervous breakdown.'"

September 12, 2006
Arlene Anisman receives an email from Reiner saying: "I'm not coming back."

September 15, 2006
Reiner misses a regularly-scheduled meeting with Maureen Myers from McMurrich Sprouts Daycare. In 18 years, Reiner has never missed a meeting. It's payday for the daycare center.

She sends him an email, receiving an immediate response saying, "Please forgive this disappearing act". What Myers doesn't know is that Reiner is sending the email from Kenya.

A financial audit reveals that more than $120,000 is missing from their account.
When the other daycares Reiner worked with hire new bookkeepers, more frauds are detected.

October 3, 2006
Fraud Squad Occurrence Intake office receives several reports of fraud from Toronto-area day care centers. The investigation is assigned to Det. Garry Hickey. Similar reports of fraud involving David Reiner continue to come in.

October 5, 2006
Detective Hickey emails Reiner asking Reiner to contact him. Hickey does not receive a reply. Reiner's family tells police that although they have received emails from Reiner, they don't know where he is.

October 10, 2006
Detective Hickey puts out a Toronto Police Service press release stating that Reiner is suspected of defrauding Toronto daycares of about $300,000. This results in extensive local news coverage.

October 23, 2006
Keith Edmonds, an Investigator with Scotia Bank, calls Detective Hickey advising him that he is investigating Reiner for money laundering as a result of the press release of Hickey's fraud investigation.

October 27, 2006
Keith Edmonds meets with Detective Hickey to compare large deposits made by Reiner that correspond with the fraud reports made by the daycare centers. It appears that the deposits are consistent with the frauds and inconsistent with Reiner's normal course of banking business.

Reiner has also withdrawn all the cash he could, approximately $17,000 from his Scotia Bank Visa card, at the same time as the suspected frauds.

November 17, 2006
Gan Yeladim daycare center files a Civil Action against Reiner, Arlene Anisman, Philip Anisman (Arlene's brother) and the Royal Bank of Canada.

In the Civil Action Gan Yaledim seeks repayment of the $16, 671.90 allegedly defrauded by David Reiner.

December 21, 2006
Detective Hickey seeks and is granted judicial orders to obtain documents concerning Reiner's bank accounts in order to investigate the claims of fraud.

February 8, 2007
An Arrest Warrant is issued for David Reiner. Reiner is charged with 21 counts of fraud and 21 counts of theft by a person required to account. The exact amount that Reiner may have defrauded ranges from $724,467.85 to more than $800,000.

February 2007
Reiner is reported to be living in Nyali, Kenya, where he is regular at local Internet cafes, shops and bars.

March 6, 2007
Maureen Myers, executive director of McMurrich Sprouts Daycare, writes a letter to Husein Mbugua, Administration Police Commandant in Nairobi explaining that Reiner
is a fugitive now living somewhere outside Nairobi. She understands that his six-month visa is about to expire on or about March 10, 2007 and he may be applying for residency status in Kenya. She wants Mbugua to act within his powers to prevent Reiner from staying in Kenya and to facilitate his return to Canada. Ugandan officials refer her back to Canadian authorities who say they can do nothing.

The Stephen Lewis Foundation posts a note on its website to donors following a March 3, 2007 article about Reiner in the Globe and Mail. They say they terminated his consultancy in 2005, and state that they have had two independent audits done showing no money is missing and confirming that Foundation finances are secure.

May 2008
Hannu Happonen and his wife, Mila, are Finnish-Canadian missionaries living in Uganda who have opened their home to David Reiner. He has told them of his work with the Stephen Lewis Foundation. They are charmed by him, and are about to hire him to provide bookkeeping services for their charity - Caring Hands. They become suspicious about this man who seems just too good to be true. They do an Internet search of Reiner and find articles about his alleged fraud in Toronto.

Happonen's attempts to contact and interest authorities in Toronto and Kampala in Reiner's presence are fruitless. Hannu and Mila confront Reiner, who doesn't deny the allegations. Reiner leaves.

May 19, 2008
Happonen receives an email from Liz Humphreys whose aid group, Help for Children in Uganda (HUG), assists orphans and needy children. Humphreys alleges that Reiner took approximately $600 from the group.

June 2008
Reiner is convinced he may end up in a Ugandan jail if he stays, and tries to turn himself in to the Canadian consulate. A consular official in Uganda tells Reiner that if he wants to turn himself in he will have to contact Toronto police himself and pay for his own airfare.

June 3, 2008
Toronto Police rule out paying for David Reiner's flight. They say it's up to the Canadian consulate in Uganda. Foreign Affairs says they are not a consular service providing repatriation for wanted Canadians abroad.

June 12, 2008
An email is sent from Aissatou Diajhate (Director of Programmes, Stephen Lewis Foundation) to over 100 grassroots organizations they fund in 15 sub-Saharan African countries explaining that Reiner; "is falsely representing himself as being affiliated with the Stephen Lewis Foundation." It is one of four mailings from the Stephen Lewis Foundation alerting African Aid projects about David Reiner.

June 2008
The fifth estate confronts David Reiner, interviews him, and later, flies Reiner to Toronto where he surrenders to police at the airport.

Reiner is taken to the Toronto West Detention Centre to await trial.