NYC Woman Accused in Deed Theft Plot Sues Co-Conspirator for Stealing Her Home

A Manhattan woman facing charges in a deed-theft scheme against a dying widow has filed a new lawsuit accusing her alleged co-conspirator of perpetrating the same crime against her. Deepa V. Roy, 69, claims Victor Quimis, 40, forged deeds to steal her Flushing, Queens home after her husband's death.

Roy and Quimis were indicted in August 2025 for allegedly collaborating to steal the Queens home of Renuka Bherwani while she was in hospice care. Roy's recent lawsuit, filed in Queens Supreme Court, alleges that Quimis took advantage of her grief after her husband, Abner Richard Siegel, died in November 2023. She claims Quimis concocted an "egregious deed theft scheme" to take ownership of her home, seeking at least $1 million in damages for stolen property, unpaid rent, and deed theft.

According to the complaint, Roy had initially asked Quimis to help remove squatters from the Flushing property. However, Quimis allegedly created two fraudulent bargain-and-sale deeds, making himself the owner of the $817,000 property. The documents were purportedly stamped by a fictitious notary, "Shereece Rthel Clarke," with a misspelled "State od New York" imprint. The final fraudulent deed was allegedly dated Jan. 22, 2024.

Roy asserts that Quimis ousted the squatters in June 2025 but then moved his own family into the property rent-free. The lawsuit further claims Quimis "stripped and stole" items from the property, including a boiler valued at $12,000, major appliances, antique furniture, and a customized Golden Dodge Ram limousine that belonged to Siegel's father.

"Ms. Roy is not a perpetrator of deed theft; she is its primary victim," said Christopher Anderson, Roy's attorney for the civil case. "Rather than remaining silent, Ms. Roy has taken aggressive, proactive legal action to hold Mr. Quimis accountable."

Quimis and his wife did not respond to requests for comment. Roy and Quimis are scheduled to return to court on Nov. 4 for their ongoing criminal case, where both have pleaded not guilty to deed theft-related charges. This case was reportedly the first brought under New York's law criminalizing deed theft.

In the case involving Renuka Bherwani, officials and her family stated that a phony deed was created on Oct. 13, 2024, while she was in hospice and suffering from dementia. Bherwani died at age 88 in June 2025. Her son, Kamal Bherwani, a former executive in administrations for Mayors Michael Bloomberg and Rudy Giuliani, has also filed civil action against Roy and Quimis. He believes Roy is attempting to shift blame in his mother's case.

"It’s just ironic that she’s making that statement a few weeks before a criminal trial," Kamal Bherwani told The Post. "The person who brought Victor [Quimis] into the situation was Deepa [Roy] . . . 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."

Jeremy Saland, Roy's attorney in the criminal case, stated that she "continues to vigorously fight and dispute the allegations against her." He added, "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."

Lawyers for Quimis in the criminal case could not be reached for comment.