Glam Lawyer Gets Prison for $8.7M Las Vegas Fraud and Gambling Bender

A disbarred California lawyer who lived large in Las Vegas on $8.7 million of her clients’ dime was sentenced Monday to 21 months in a federal prison.

Sara Jacqueline King, 49, called herself the “slots whisperer” and claimed to have an “unbeatable strategy” for high-stakes slots – a game of pure chance where the only strategy involved is remembering to press a button.

The reality was that King funded a six-month gambling spree in 2023 with money from investors in her company, King Family Lending LLC (KFL), while living in a VIP suite at the Wynn Las Vegas and subsisting largely on a diet of cocktails and Xanax, according to court documents.

King’s suite at the Wynn was only comped to VIP customers who were prepared to gamble more than $300K a day. It was around this time that her husband, a great-nephew of the last Shah of Iran, opted to leave her when he realized he was “married to the female Bernie Madoff.”

King was kicked out of the Wynn in November 2023 after management learned she was allegedly trying to scam fellow guests and staff members.

Payday Loans for Celebs

King Family Lending purportedly provided short-term, high-interest loans to celebrities, professional athletes, and other high-net worth individuals. These were secured by the borrower’s own assets, such as jewelry, luxury cars, and other high-ticket items.

Five victims invested the $8.7 million into the scam. At the time these investments were made, from January 2022 to January 2023, King didn’t issue a single loan, according to prosecutors.

In February 2023, LDR International, one of the investors in KFL, sued King, alleging she had blown through a $10,258,500 investment meant for third-party borrowers. LDR also referred the case to the FBI, which sparked the federal investigation.

On July 24, 2023, King pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering. On Monday, US District Judge David O. Carter ordered her to pay $8,785,045 in restitution to her victims in addition to her prison sentence.

“Lady Mafia”

King’s attorney, Sam Cross, asked the judge for a sentence of home confinement or six months in prison. He argued his client was suffering from an addiction, living in a “vicious cycle,” and had “lost everything,” including her family and her professional status as a lawyer.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Waier countered that the amount of money involved and the fact King had been an attorney warranted a harsher sentence.

Waier noted that King had appeared to revel in her notoriety when she appeared in an episode of “The Binge Crime Podcast” in October 2024, where she referred to herself as “Lady Mafia” and claimed she could “sell fire to the Devil.”

In a letter to the court, one defrauded investor, a friend of her ex-husband, accused her of weaponizing her legal expertise to “destroy the lives of those who trusted her,” according to The Orange County Register.

“It was an elaborate, sustained scheme built on lie after lie,’ the investor claimed. ‘What she did took planning, effort, and cold disregard for the damage it would cause.”

https://www.casino.org/news/glam-lawyer-gets-prison-for-8-7m-las-vegas-fraud-and-gambling-bender/

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5723089&forum_id=2:#48918870)

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11771953/amp/LA-attorney-accused-blowing-10-2M-firms-money-scammed-friends-thousands-dollars.html

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5723089&forum_id=2:#48919004)

Pahlavi filed for divorce from King in late December, citing irreconcilable differences, with the couple separating after just nine months together, according to court records.

He told the Daily Beast that he introduced her to LDR, because he wanted to help grow her business.

The hotel developer said: 'Everyone she met instantly fell in love with her. She had this kind of personality.'

'Everything seemed just perfect, we were meeting great people every day and we had a wonderful lifestyle at the Wynn.'

Pahlavi 'substantiated' the accusations against King and 'fled to Morocco'

But when he realized that the bank logon on one of the statements he was handed by King was missing, he spotted several other errors.

He added: 'My whole life crumbled. I never had any idea she was doing all this.'

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5723089&forum_id=2:#48919010)

King is also accused of sending 'racist' text messages to her former partner about his new partner saying: 'If the whore is in my house Shw [sic] better hide. She's next on my list.'

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5723089&forum_id=2:#48919017)