New York is on the board with its first conviction below the state’s prison deed theft legislation.
Victor Quimis pleaded responsible to stealing the house of Renuka Bherwani, an aged widow who lived in Kew Gardens Hills, Queens, the New York Legal professional Common’s Workplace announced. The costs Quimis confronted included two counts of grand larceny and one depend of residential mortgage fraud.
“Deed theft is a malicious crime that robs households of their properties, their neighborhood, and their monetary safety,” Legal professional Common Letitia James stated in an announcement.
Quimis and a co-conspirator have been accused of forging Bherwani’s signature on paperwork transferring possession of the house to themselves. They then cast extra paperwork, in accordance with the AG’s workplace, transferring possession of the house to an organization managed by Quimis.
Quimis then obtained a $552,000 mortgage on the property, pocketing greater than $300,000 after paying off prior mortgages and liens. Quimis and his co-conspirator have been indicted in August 2025, two months after Bherwani died; she had been receiving end-of-life hospice care in the identical house allegedly stolen from her when the scheme unfolded.
Quimis is ready to be sentenced for his position within the crime in mid-January. Sentencing tips name for one and a half to 4 and a half years in state jail.
Deepa Roy, the alleged co-conspirator within the case, entered a not responsible plea to the fees she faces. Her trial is scheduled to start in February.
The cast deeds shall be vacated when Quimis is sentenced in January, permitting the house to be returned to Bherwani’s household. The AG’s workplace can be looking for to void the mortgage Quimis took out.
“I’m grateful to the Legal professional Common and to the investigators, auditors and prosecutors who constructed this case,” Bherwani’s son stated in an announcement.
The conviction was made doable by a 2023 legislation — drafted by James and Brooklyn state Sen. Zellnor Myrie — that prolonged the statute of limitations on circumstances and gave the AG authority to prosecute instantly, slightly than counting on native district attorneys.
A companion measure additionally gave the legal professional normal and native prosecutors the facility to halt court proceedings the place the possession of a property is in dispute.
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