Queens DA: Commack real estate agent charged in scheme to forge property deeds

A real estate agent from Commack and three cohorts face a slew of charges for allegedly “stealing three homes” in Queens by forging the rightful owners’ signatures, submitting bogus deed transfers and in one case, selling the property, Queens District Attorney Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced Tuesday.

Autumn Valeri, 41, of Commack, was arraigned on multiple counts of grand larceny, identity theft, falsifying business records and other charges, according to a 47-count indictment from Katz that also named Carl Avinger, 42, of St. Albans, Queens, Lawrence T. Ray, 38, of Jamaica, and Torey Guice, 40, of Roselle, N.J.

Valeri is listed as a licensed real estate associate broker and the vice president of the East Northport division of Fave Realty Inc., which has offices on Long Island and elsewhere in the state, according to its website. Ray is the owner of Shuler Management LLC, Kubick Ray Kubick LLC and Castaneda Ray Family LLC, Queens prosecutors said.

The defense attorneys listed in court documents for Valeri, as well as for Avinger, Guice and Ray, did not immediately respond Tuesday to telephone messages left at their four respective offices.

In a news release, Katz’s office said defendants sold a home in May 2023 to a “third party” for $600,000. About $442,000 in proceeds from the sale was wired to a TD Bank account controlled by Kubick Ray Kubick LLC, according to Katz’s office.

The purchaser of the home “has since filed a civil suit against the victims claiming legal rights to the home,” according to Katz’s office. The suit is on hold because of the criminal case, prosecutors said.

On or around April 10, 2023, Valeri and Avinger acted “in concert” with two others to file a false document with the New York City Department of Finance that “recorded the deed transfer of a home on 208th Street in Jamaica Estates from a 76-year-old woman, who is the rightful owner, to Shuler Management LLC, owned by Ray.”

Two signatures on the deed were deemed fraudulent: that of a former co-owner who died in 2016 and that of the notary, prosecutors said in the release.

A few weeks later, prosecutors said, on or around April 28, 2023, Valeri and Avinger, “acting in concert with Ray,” performed a similar fraudulent deed transfer by forging the signatures of a notary as well as a mother and daughter who rightfully owned a home at 61st Road Kew Gardens Hills. The home was transferred to Kubick Ray Kubick LLC and sold the home the following month. according to prosecutors.

Valeri and other defendants allegedly undertook a third fraudulent scheme, transferring a home on Kendrick Place in Jamaica Estates from an 82-year-old woman to Castaneda Ray Family LLC, through the filing of documents with forged signatures, according to the district attorney.

Valeri, as well as Avinger and Ray pleaded not guilty Tuesday before state Supreme Court Justice Leigh Cheng in Queens to first-degree grand larceny, first-degree criminal possession of stolen property, first-degree identity theft, first-degree falsifying business records, first-degree offering a false instrument for filing, first-degree scheme to defraud, second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument, second-degree grand larceny, second-degree criminal possession of stolen property and fourth-degree conspiracy, according to court documents.

Guice pleaded not guilty to first-degree identity theft, first-degree falsifying business records, first-degree offering a false instrument for filing, second-degree grand larceny, second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument and fourth-degree conspiracy, court records show.

Avinger, Ray and Valeri face up to 25 years while Guice faces up to 15 years. They are scheduled to return to court on April 29.