The California lawyer who swindled nearly $9 million from clients to fuel her gambling addiction in Las Vegas and support her lavish lifestyle will spend less than two years behind bars.
Sara Jacqueline King was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison on Monday after she pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering charges in 2023.
King was also ordered to pay $8,785,045 in restitution. She had faced a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
King’s defense argued for a six-month sentence but was denied by US District Court Judge David Carter.
“This is a lot of money,” Carter said. “There has always been a tremendous sense of betrayal,” Carter said during the May 5 hearing, according to the Orange County Register.
King, 41, used her self-named lending business to give short-term, high-interest loans to professional athletes, celebrities and other high-net-worth individuals.
She claimed to secure the loans using her clients’ high-end assets, including designer handbags, watches, luxury automobiles, yachts and earnings from guaranteed sports contracts.
Under the name King Family Lending LLC, the Newport Beach lawyer recruited investors to fund business loans, using the investments as collateral for the same loans between January 2022 and January 2023.
She admitted her scheme to the investors, promising to retain the collateral if a borrower defaulted and sell the collateral to repay the investor in full.
“In reality, during this time period, King never initiated or funded any loan. Instead, she used victims’ funds to gamble at Las Vegas casinos and support her lavish lifestyle,” the US Attorney’s Office in Central California said after filing charges in 2023.
King was dubbed “Lady Mafia” by Assistant United States Attorney Jennifer L. Waier.
During her scheme, King lost $8.7 million from five investors when she gambled in Las Vegas and blew the rest of the money on her “lavish lifestyle.”
King lost between $6 million and $7 million at the Wynn Las Vegas resort where she lived for six months, the Orange County Register reported.
King admitted that she withdrew $132,156 of investor money from the business account to buy a Porsche Taycan electric sports car.
King was sued by LDR International Limited of the British Virgin Islands for falsifying millions of dollars worth of loans.
In the suit, LDR allegedly gave King 97 loans totaling $10.2 million over 10 months in 2022, and she gambled the funds away when she lived “24/7” at the resort, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The offshore firm claimed King used a photo of her with NFL quarterbacks Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes, Aaron Rodgers and Josh Allen to demonstrate her connection to high-profile athletes.
The photo was taken during the football stars’ “The Match” at the Wynn Golf Club in Paradise, Nevada in June 2022.
King claimed in court filings that her ex-husband, Kamran Abbas-Vahid, pressured her to gamble the loan funds to earn the money she owed LDR International.
She also said Abbas-Vahid, a French citizen, would accompany her at the casino and take the winnings she earned from large jackpots, according to the outlet.
King’s lawyer blamed her abuse of Xanax and 10 drinks a day as the reason she distanced herself from her friends and family, which enabled the gambling addiction.
“She has been humbled,” defense attorney Sam Cross said Monday. “She has lost everything. She has to rebuild from nothing at the age of 41. She is really starting from zero.”
