A heartbroken household who had their Queens dwelling stolen by a flashy actual property agent’s deed fraud scheme fought by tears at sentencing Wednesday — after which have been outraged on the convicted scammer’s no-jail sentence.
Gloria Kubick, 79, stated priceless objects — like her deceased dad’s “Welcome House Johnny” signal from when he returned from World Conflict II service — went lacking after Autumn Valeri, 41, solid paperwork and conned Kubick and her daughter, Maria Bendek, into handing over their 61st Highway dwelling in Kew Gardens Hills, which they’ve owned since 1999.
“It’s all simply thrown within the rubbish,” Kubick recalled about objects tossed from the house she grew up in, which was bought by her dad and mom in 1940.
“It’s like their lives meant nothing,” she added.
Bendek, 53, described the expertise “like my grandparents died yet again.”
“All of our reminiscences lived in that home they usually have been stolen,” Bendek stated, who purchased the home along with her mother in 1999.
Valeri, fitted in a skintight darkish go well with, was sentenced to 5 years probation and should fork over her actual property license after she admitted to stealing three Queens houses by an elaborate rip-off screwing over owners between March to July 2023, Queens prosecutors stated.
The slap-on-the-wrist left Kubick questioning if justice had been served.
“I don’t perceive how she will get a sentence like this when she’s destroyed individuals’s lives,” Kubick advised the decide.
Valeri and three others — Carl Avinger, Torey Guice and Lawrence Ray — solid signatures and filed faux deeds with the Metropolis Register’s workplace to take over the houses value greater than $3 million.
In regard to the mother-daughter’s dwelling in Kew Backyard Hills, Avinger and Valery solid paperwork, together with a wedding certificates and a driver’s license, so they might promote it to a 3rd occasion in Could 2023 for $600,000, in line with prosecutors.
They then wired about $442,000 to Ray’s checking account after the sale, which has been topic of an ongoing civil lawsuit, in line with court docket docs.
In whole, the quartet stole houses value greater than $3 million, prosecutors have stated.
“The victims on this case had houses that have been ripped away from them, and these have been houses that have been extra than simply 4 partitions and a roof,” Queens Assistant District Legal professional Rachel Stein stated in court docket.
Valeri’s sentence, which comes with no jail time, features a signed order by Queens Supreme Court docket Justice Leigh Cheng to void the fraudulent deed on the property.
Authorities have stated that Avinger and Valeri additionally filed a faux doc with the town’s finance division that claimed a 76-year-old girl who owned a home on 208th Avenue in Queens Village was transferring the deed to an organization Ray owned.
The conspirators additionally solid the signatures of the sufferer’s lifeless sister — who as soon as co-owned the home — and a notary, prosecutors have stated.
The defendants additionally tried snagging a Jamaica Estates dwelling — owned by an 82-year-old girl — by the identical scheme, prosecutors have stated.
Valeri, who apologized to the household in court docket, pleaded responsible to 3 counts of grand larceny within the second diploma on October 8.
Avinger was already sentenced to three ½ to seven years in jail after pleading responsible to identification theft.
He was scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday on grand larceny costs but it surely was postponed till November 13.
He faces as much as 9 years at sentencing.
Queens District Legal professional Melinda Katz stated her workplace plans to make the most of a neighborhood regulation to void the opposite two properties’ fraudulent deeds after Avinger is sentenced — which can return the houses to the victims.
“Accountability shouldn’t be the identical for each defendant,” Katz stated in a press release.”
“The primary precedence right here was to make the victims complete and return their property to them.”
