{"id":30219,"date":"2025-11-06T01:00:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T01:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/30219\/"},"modified":"2025-11-06T01:00:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T01:00:08","slug":"queens-family-heartbroken-after-shady-real-estate-agent-scammed-them-out-of-their-home-and-received-no-jail-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/30219\/","title":{"rendered":"Queens family heartbroken after shady real estate agent scammed them out of their home \u2014 and received no jail time"},"content":{"rendered":"

A heartbroken family who had their Queens home stolen through a flashy real estate agent\u2019s deed fraud<\/a> scheme fought through tears at sentencing Wednesday \u2014 and then were outraged at the convicted scammer\u2019s no-jail sentence.<\/p>\n

Gloria Kubick, 79, said priceless items \u2014 like her deceased dad\u2019s \u201cWelcome Home Johnny\u201d sign from when he returned from World War II service \u2014 went missing after Autumn Valeri, 41, forged documents and conned Kubick and her daughter, Maria Bendek, into handing over their 61st Road home in Kew Gardens Hills, which they\u2019ve owned since 1999.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all just thrown in the garbage,\u201d Kubick recalled about items tossed from the home she grew up in, which was purchased by her parents in 1940.<\/p>\n

A heartbroken family in Kew Gardens Hills, Queens, fought back tears after finding out real estate agent Autumn Valeri, 41, above, who conducted a deed fraud scheme, received no jail time. Instagram\/Autumn Valeri<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like their lives meant nothing,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Bendek, 53, described the experience \u201clike my grandparents died all over again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of our memories lived in that house and they were stolen,\u201d Bendek said, who bought the house with her mom in 1999.<\/p>\n

Valeri, fitted in a skintight dark suit, was sentenced to five years probation and will have to fork over her real estate license after she admitted to stealing three Queens homes through an elaborate scam screwing over homeowners<\/a> between March to July 2023, Queens prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The slap-on-the-wrist left Kubick wondering if justice had been served.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t understand how she gets a sentence like this when she\u2019s destroyed people\u2019s lives,\u201d Kubick told the judge.<\/p>\n

Valeri and three others \u2014 Carl Avinger, Torey Guice and Lawrence Ray \u2014 forged signatures and filed fake deeds with the City Register\u2019s office to take over the homes worth more than $3 million.<\/p>\n

Gloria Kubick, 79, said items such as her late dad\u2019s \u201cWelcome Home Johnny\u201d sign after he came back home from serving in World War II went missing in part of the scheme Valeri ran. Michael Nagle<\/p>\n

In regard to the mother-daughter\u2019s home in Kew Garden Hills, Avinger and Valery forged documents, including a marriage certificate and a driver\u2019s license, so they could sell it to a third party in May 2023 for $600,000, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n

They then wired about $442,000 to Ray\u2019s bank account after the sale, which has been subject of an ongoing civil lawsuit, according to court docs.<\/p>\n

In total, the quartet stole homes worth more than $3 million, prosecutors have said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe victims in this case had homes that were ripped away from them, and these were homes that were more than just four walls and a roof,\u201d Queens Assistant District Attorney Rachel Stein said in court.<\/p>\n

Valeri\u2019s sentence, which comes with no jail time, includes a signed order by Queens Supreme Court Justice Leigh Cheng to void the fraudulent deed on the property.<\/p>\n

Authorities have said that Avinger and Valeri also filed a fake document with the city\u2019s finance department that claimed a 76-year-old woman who owned a house on 208th Street in Queens Village was transferring the deed to a company Ray owned.<\/p>\n

The conspirators also forged the signatures of the victim\u2019s dead sister \u2014 who once co-owned the house \u2014 and a notary, prosecutors have said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A heartbroken family in Kew Gardens Hills, Queens, fought tears after finding out a real estate agent who conducted a deed fraud scheme received no jail time. Michael Nagle<\/p>\n

The defendants also tried snagging a Jamaica Estates home \u2014 owned by an 82-year-old woman \u2014 through the same scheme, prosecutors have said.<\/p>\n

Valeri, who apologized to the family in court, pleaded guilty to three counts of grand larceny in the second degree on October 8.<\/p>\n

Avinger was already sentenced to 3 \u00bd to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to identity theft. <\/p>\n

He was scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday on grand larceny charges but it was postponed until November 13. <\/p>\n

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He faces up to nine years at sentencing.<\/p>\n

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz<\/a> said her office plans to utilize a local law to void the other two properties\u2019 fraudulent deeds after Avinger is sentenced \u2014 which will return the homes to the victims.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccountability is not the same for every defendant,\u201d Katz said in a statement.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThe first priority here was to make the victims whole and return their property to them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A heartbroken family who had their Queens home stolen through a flashy real estate agent\u2019s deed fraud scheme…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[396,11706,57,9,24,63,122,124,123,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-30219","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-fraud","9":"tag-houses","10":"tag-metro","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-nyc","14":"tag-queens","15":"tag-queens-headlines","16":"tag-queens-news","17":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}