Woman pleads guilty to mortgage fraud

TAMPA — Gloria Arias, a resident of Weston, pleaded guilty to a federal count of making material misrepresentations to a financial institution in a case connected to a Hillsborough County condo complex.

Arias, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney's office in Tampa, faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in federal prison for her involvement in the mortgage fraud offense. The total amount of lost money in the scheme, the office alleges, was $416,253.

The plea agreement states Arias was a mortgage broker for Synergy Lending Group, which also owned and operated a real estate business, Realty Alliance LLC, and a title agency. In summer 2006, Realty Alliance was hired to market condos at The Arbors at Carrollwood, a 390-unit complex on Ehrlich Road in Hillsborough County. Synergy Lending, meanwhile, assisted prospective borrowers in obtaining financing from mortgage lenders to purchase condo units at The Arbors, the U.S. Attorney's office says.