A Manhattan woman accused of heartlessly stealing a dying widow’s home in a deed-theft scam is suing her alleged co-conspirator for cheating her out of her own property too.
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woman → accuse → property
Deepa V. Roy, 69, and Victor Quimis, 40, were indicted on deed-theft charges in August 2025 after allegedly teaming up to steal the Kew Gardens Hills, Queens home of Renuka Bherwani while she was in hospice care.
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she → indict → care
Roy now claims in a new lawsuit that Quimis concocted an “egregious deed theft scheme” to commandeer her home after her husband died.
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husband → claim → home
She is demanding at least $1 million in damages for stolen property, unpaid rent and deed theft.
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She → demand → property
Deed theft — an issue state officials have vowed to tackle amid a spike in incidents — involves using fake documents, forgery and lies to illegally assume ownership of someone else’s house.
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officials → vow → house
After her husband, Abner Richard Siegel, died in November 2023, Roy allegedly asked Quimis to help remove squatters from a Flushing, Queens, home she and her husband owned together, according to a lawsuit filed Sept. 16 in Queens Supreme Court.
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she → die → Court
Instead, Quimis allegedly took “predatory advantage of [the] elderly, grieving widow” and created two bargain-and-sale deeds that ultimately made him the owner of the $817,000 property, according to the complaint.
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him → take → complaint
The fraudulent documents were allegedly stamped by made-up notary “Shereece Rthel Clarke” with the typo-ridden imprint: “State od [sic] New York.”
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documents → stamp → imprint
Roy claimed in the court papers that Quimis dated the final fake deed Jan. 22, 2024.
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Quimis → claim → deed
In June 2025, Quimis finally ousted the squatters – but replaced them with his own family, the lawsuit claims.
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lawsuit → oust → family
He, his wife Margot, his mother-in-law and two kids have been living at the investment property “rent free” since, per the complaint.
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wife → live → complaint
Quimis also allegedly “stripped and stole” Roy’s property, including a $12,000 boiler installed in 2015, major appliances and antique furniture — and gutted and remodeled a Golden Dodge Ram limousine that belonged to Siegel’s father.
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that → strip → father
Rather than remaining silent, Ms. Roy has taken aggressive, proactive legal action to hold Mr. Quimis accountable,” her attorney for the civil case, Christopher Anderson, told The Post.
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attorney → remain → Post
Quimis and his wife did not return a request for comment.
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Quimis → return → comment
Roy and Quimis’ criminal case is ongoing, according to the New York state attorney general’s office.
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case → accord → office
Both have pleaded not guilty to a slew of deed theft-related charges.
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Both → plead → charges
Their case was the first brought under the state law criminalizing deed theft, officials said.
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officials → bring → theft
The pair allegedly created a phony deed Oct. 13, 2024, while Bherwani was in hospice and suffering from dementia, before she died at 88 in June 2025, according to officials and her family.
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she → create → officials
Her son, Kamal Bherwani, who was an executive in the administrations for former Mayors Michael Bloomberg and Rudy Giuliani, has also taken civil action against Roy and Quimis.
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who → take → Roy
He believes Roy is also trying to evade blame in his mother’s case.
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Roy → believe → case
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Report → start → news
“It’s just ironic that she’s making that statement a few weeks before a criminal trial,” Kamal Bherwani told The Post.
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Bherwani → ’ → Post
“The person who brought Victor [Quimis] into the situation was Deepa [Roy] . . .
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who → bring → situation
Victor is an expert in doing this — he may have taken on some aspects of the fraud, but there’s no doubt she’s the one who sourced my mother.”
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who → do → mother
Jeremy Saland, who is representing Roy in her criminal case, said she “continues to vigorously fight and dispute the allegations against her.
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she → represent → her
“It’s important to recognize that two unfortunate realities can be true: Renuka Bherwani may very well have been the victim of Mr. Quimis, but so was Deepa Roy,” he claimed.
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he → ’ → Quimis
Lawyers representing Quimis in the criminal case did not return requests for comment.
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Lawyers → represent → comment
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