A Queens realtor and three of her associates used fake deeds to steal three houses from their rightful owners, including the homes of two elderly woman, authorities said on Tuesday.
Using fake documents, bogus signatures and false deeds, the alleged property pirates tried to force the residents out of their own homes so they could sell them for a profit.
A third-party buyer even sued one of the duped homeowners, claiming a legal right to a home in Kew Gardens Hills.
The deed fraud investigation blocked the civil suit, officials said.
“Property ownership is a fundamental right and my office works to protect that right in this borough,” said Queens DA Melinda Katz. “As alleged, the defendants acted in concert to target properties for theft, forge documents, file false instruments and ultimately steal homes from the rightful owners.”
The 47-count indictment also names three companies that worked in concert with the deed scammers, who targeted homes in Kew Gardens Hills, Queens Village and Jamaica Estates, according to court documents.
Arrested were Carl Avinger, 42, Autumn Valeri, 41, Lawrence Ra, 38, and Torey Guice, 40, who each pleaded not guilty during an arraignment in Queens Criminal Court.
Among the charges they faced were grand larceny, criminal possession of stolen property, criminal possession of a forged instrument, identity theft and falsifying business records.
Ray and Valeri face maximum sentences of 8 1/3 to 25 years in prison. Avinger faces up to 12½ to 25 years and Guice faces up to five to 15 years.
According to court records, the scheme began in April 2023, when Avinger and Valeri — who is a licensed real estate agent — filed a false document with the New York City Department of Finance, recording the deed transfer of a home on 208th St. in Jamaica Estates, a property rightfully owned by a 76-year-old woman.
The deed was transferred to Shuler Management LLC, which is owned by Ray, according to court records.
One of the signatures on the deed was of a former co-owner who died in 2016, according to the indictment. The notary signature on the transfer was also fake, officials said.
Weeks later a similar deed was transferred involving the same players. The victims that time were a mother and daughter whose signatures on the deed to their home on 61st Road in Kew Gardens Hills were forged. The deed was transferred to a company owned by Ray and sold to a third party for $600,000, prosecutors said.
In May, 2023, the scammers targeted an 82-year-old woman in Jamaica Estates who said she never signed the deed that transferred her property to yet another company owned by Ray, court records show.
Avinger and Valeri are in a relationship and have a child together, prosecutors said.
She works in real estate in Nassau and Suffolk counties.
“I know the case is a serious case,” Valeri’s lawyer, Barry Zone said. “She was born and raised on Long Island. She’s a single mother of a 6 month old. She lives with her mother at home and the home that she owns, and at this point, it’s just her, her mother and her 6 month old.”
Prosecutors said Avinger is the baby’s father. Prosecutors said he has at least five aliases, five felony convictions, six misdemeanor convictions and four parole revocations.
Valeri was granted supervised release, and ordered to surrender her passport.
All four defendants are set to be back in court on April 29.
Last year, a Long Island man was sentenced to three to nine years in prison for stealing Queens homes from their elderly owners by using forged documents and made-up identities to sell houses that weren’t his.
