Cynthia Suratos Lorica Sentenced for Mortgage Fraud and Tax Evasion

OAKLAND - Cynthia Suratos Lorica was sentenced yesterday to 18 months in prison and ordered to pay more than $1 million in restitution for bank fraud and tax evasion, United States Attorney Melinda Haag announced.

Ms. Lorica, age 51, of Hayward, California, waived indictment and pleaded guilty to an information charging her with bank fraud and tax evasion. According to the plea agreement, Ms. Lorica admitted to participating in a fraudulent scheme to obtain money from Washington Mutual Bank in 2006 and 2007 by making false statements in loan applications secured by real property. During that time period, she was the owner and Chief Executive Officer of All Ways Financial Services, Inc., a financial services company. She was also an officer of Absolute Value Financial, Inc. Absolute Value was licensed by the State of California to originate mortgage loans and to engage in real estate transactions. Both businesses were located at 3900 Newpark Mall Road, Suite 201, Newark, California. Ms. Lorica was involved in the preparation and submission of loan applications to various federally insured financial institutions and other lending institutions.

Ms. Lorica also admitted to evading taxes on income she received in 2006 and 2007. She admitted to substantially under-reporting her gains from the sale of real estate as well as under-reporting her income from All Ways Financial and claiming a mortgage interest deduction that she was not entitle to receive.

The sentence was handed down by Chief U.S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilken following a guilty plea on one count in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1344(2) and one count in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7201. Judge Wilken also sentenced the defendant to a three year period of supervised release. The defendant will begin serving the sentence on March 27, 2013.

This prosecution is the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service.