RHONJ’s Teresa is in it again

Long-standing rumours that Luis Ruelas may be in financial ruin have been coming to a head in recent weeks. In the explosive trailer for this season of The Real Housewives of New Jersey, there’s a clip of Margaret Josephs saying that Luis ‘pissed’ Teresa Giudice's money away, a claim which Teresa recently slammed while appearing on Tori Spelling’s podcast. 

 

But in recent days, reports have emerged that Luis and his business partner, Marcello Genovese, the CEO of a company called Vinivia, have been accused of financial misconduct, suggesting that Margaret may have been onto something. 

The pair are reportedly on the hook for millions of dollars in outstanding debt to employees, vendors, and agencies. People have had a hard time definitively tying Luis and Marcello together. But Luis posted this photo to Instagram of him and Theresa headed to Switzerland, where Vinivia is located and the company name appears as a hashtag. 

There’s also this reel of them in Switzerland.

Sources have told outlets that Marcello misinformed Vinivia employees that Luis was an investor, demanding that a check in the amount of $300,000 be made out to a company called Influencer Nation, which turned out to be non-existent. 

Marcello, on the other hand, has been accused of being involved in a shady $6 million deal with none other than the D’Amelio family. The deal ended up falling through after backlash from fans. Marcello approached banks in the U.S. asking for loans, citing insufficient funds for upfront payments to vendors and not wanting to use his own money. Not wanting to mix personal finances with business finances isn’t entirely uncommon, but paired with the rest of what’s going on, it’s not looking very good.

It’s reported that there are several Swiss vendors and contractors that have yet to be paid, and that Vinivia has a hard time meeting payroll deadlines and as a result, employee health benefits and insurance have been cancelled. 

Reportedly, only one employee at Vinivia held onto their job after the company racked up another $1.5 million in debt in May, with former employees alleging that Marcello faked emails from Vinivia to a separate company in an attempt to secure $60 million in additional funding. 

All of these reports come on the heels of a June 7 article where it was reported that Luis took out a $1 million loan, for which the couple’s Montville mansion serves as collateral. The home was purchased by an LLC, and he’s named as the “sole member” of the LLC.

While all of this is reportedly going on, Teresa is still working to get her outstanding tax liens cleared. As of October 2023, she had been able to clear nearly $500,000 in tax debts, thanks to her cookbooks, businesses and Real Housewives of New Jersey paychecks. However, she’s still on the hook for just north of $600,000.

If some of this sounds familiar, it’s because these types of shady business dealings and embezzlement is what led to the demise of her first marriage to Joe Giudice (I mean, among other things, let’s be real), and was the reason she served time in jail. So it’s unfortunate to see that Teresa has yet again found herself in such close proximity with someone who seems to have a history of being a less-than-favourable businessperson. 

Back in 2021, a series of lawsuits were levelled against Luis’ digital advertising business, Digital Media Solutions, and he was sued for improper business practices. The lawsuits were over violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). Some of the cases were voluntarily dismissed, but some remain open.

The trail of lawsuits, allegations and shady business dealings all became talking points for Teresa’s family and co-stars when the pair started dating, particularly since Teresa’s dating life had been her best kept secret since her divorce from Joe. But like many women who take the brave step of bringing a man into the Real Housewives fold, there are concerns the sideshow could be her demise. 

We saw something similar with Kenya Moore when she started dating Marc Daly. She became very flaky with filming and had a secret wedding, unbeknownst to her co-stars and production. Again, it had fans questioning what the point of being on a show about your real life was if you were just going off to check off major life milestones in secret?

The same thing happened with Shannon Beador and John Janssen. They blended families, everything seemed peachy, but Shannon’s drinking had become out of control and it was obvious that there were a lot of issues bubbling up under the surface. Now that John is dating former Real Housewives of Orange County star Alexis Bellino, who is anything but tight-lipped when it comes to their sex life, Shannon will be coming face to face with her on the newest season of the show because producers, wisely, brought Alexis back to film this messy dynamic.

And how could I not mention what’s going on with Porsha Williams and Simon Guobadia? The pair met through Porsha’s ex-friend Falyn, and then Porsha began dating Simon, whose relationship I touched on in this piece. They had an elaborate wedding, and while everyone was rooting for their success, they split up recently over her concerns about his status as a U.S. citizen. Since their split, they have been making headlines daily over petty things like him issuing a cease and desist on production filming the Rolls Royce he gifted her.

Perhaps the difference between all of these cases is that Luis is dealing with actual lawsuits and cases in courts of law, for which the documents are being broadcast all over the internet. The rest of the stuff is just…petty. That being said, it does speak to a man’s ability to completely derail how a woman shows up during filming, because it is very personal. And when you throw in alcohol, which is a mainstay on these shows, things can get out of hand. 

Producers know that, though, and I think to an extent, it’s exploited. Look how Bethenny Frankel’s relationship with Jason Hoppy became such a main storyline for her that she was given her own spinoff to chronicle the early days of their marriage on Bethenny Ever After. And when the pair was headed for divorce, the multiple breakdowns she had on camera were TV gold.

While the audience, naturally, eats all of this drama up, it’s important to remember that we’re dealing with real people and real life. And whether we’re talking about the culprits in any given situation, or the victims, it’s so much more than just TV. 

It’s unclear what will happen with the latest allegations against Luis, but neither Marcello or Luis have released a statement about what the hell is going on over at Vinivia. The comments, however, have been turned off on all the company’s social media platforms. This is likely in response to a flurry of comments from a party planner who says she has still not received her $300,000 payment for organizing an event that Luis, Teresa, and their blended family attended. Interestingly, the outstanding payment the party planner says she is owed is the exact amount Luis requested a check be made out to Influencer Nation for.

For Luis, this is probably just another day in the life, really. And given his history of being the recipient of lawsuit after lawsuit, perhaps it’s just another case of the show having to go on. Hopefully that happens with minimal impact on Teresa, though. Because we’re all rooting for her this season.