Queens family heartbroken after shady real estate agent scammed them out of their home — and received no jail time

A heartbroken family who had their Queens home stolen through a flashy real estate agent’s deed fraud scheme fought through tears at sentencing Wednesday — and then were outraged at the convicted scammer’s no-jail sentence.

Gloria Kubick, 79, said priceless items — like her deceased dad’s “Welcome Home Johnny” sign from when he returned from World War II service — 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’ve owned since 1999.

“It’s all just thrown in the garbage,” Kubick recalled about items tossed from the home she grew up in, which was purchased by her parents in 1940.

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“It’s like their lives meant nothing,” she added.

Bendek, 53, described the experience as “like my grandparents died all over again.”

“All of our memories lived in that house and they were stolen,” said Bendek, who bought the house with her mom.

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 stealing three Queens homes through an elaborate scam screwing over homeowners between March and July 2023, Queens prosecutors said.

 The slap on the wrist left Kubick wondering if justice had been served.

“I don’t understand how she gets a sentence like this when she’s destroyed people’s lives,” Kubick told the judge.

Valeri and three others — Carl Avinger, Torey Guice and Lawrence Ray — forged signatures and filed fake deeds with the City Register’s Office to take over the homes.

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In regard to the mother-daughter’s home in Kew Gardens Hills, Avinger and Valery forged documents, including a marriage certificate and a driver’s license, so they could sell it to a third party in May 2023 for $600,000, according to prosecutors.

They then wired about $442,000 to Ray’s bank account after the sale, which has been the subject of an ongoing civil lawsuit, according to court docs.

In total, the quartet stole homes worth more than $3 million, prosecutors have said.

“The 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,” Queens Assistant District Attorney Rachel Stein said in court.

Valeri’s 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.

Authorities have said Avinger and Valeri also filed a fake document with the city 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.

The conspirators also forged the signatures of the victim’s dead sister — who once co-owned the house — and a notary, prosecutors have said. 

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The defendants also tried snagging a Jamaica Estates home — owned by an 82-year-old woman — through the same scheme, prosecutors have said.

Valeri, who apologized to the family in court, pleaded guilty to three counts of grand larceny in the second degree on October 8.

Avinger was already sentenced to three and a half to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to identity theft.

He was scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday on grand larceny charges but it was postponed until November 13.

He faces up to nine years at sentencing.

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said her office plans to utilize a local law to void the other two properties’ fraudulent deeds after Avinger is sentenced — which will return the homes to the victims.

“Accountability is not the same for every defendant,” Katz said in a statement.

“The first priority here was to make the victims whole and return their property to them.”