California attorney sentenced to prison for scamming investors out of $8.7 million to finance lavish lifestyle

A Newport Beach attorney who admitted that she swindled investors out of $8.7 million in order to bankroll her lavish lifestyle and high-rolling gambling habit was sentenced Monday, May 5 to one year and nine months in federal prison.

A luxuriant lifestyle of high-end jewelry, luxury cars, a six-month stay at a opulent Las Vegas resort and millions of dollars in gambling losses — all financed on the back of unsuspecting well-heeled investors — ended with Sara Jacqueline King pleading guilty last year to wire fraud and money laundering.

Citing the large monetary loss and the lavish lifestyle it paid for, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter denied a defense request for a shorter prison sentence.

“This is a lot of money,” Carter said. “There has always been a tremendous sense of betrayal.”

King opted not to speak during the sentencing hearing at the federal courthouse in Santa Ana. But her defense attorney, Sam Cross, cited alcohol, drug and gambling issues as having pushed King — both physically and emotionally — away from her family and toward the multimillion dollar fraud.

“She has been humbled,” Cross told the judge. “She has lost everything. She has to rebuild from nothing at the age of 41. She is really starting from zero.”

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Waier acknowledged that King, in a separate criminal case, provided the government assistance in convicting another man — John McCabe — of defrauding a 78-year-old Irvine man out of nearly $2 million. But the prosecutor noted that even after pleading guilty in her own case, King described herself as “Lady Mafia” during an appearance on a podcast.

“It was brazen,” Waier said of King’s scam. “It went on for a long time.”

“This defendant is a lawyer,” the prosecutor added. “She had the trust of the public.”

In a letter to the court, one of the defrauded investors who had been friends with King’s husband accused King of using her legal knowledge to “destroy the lives of those who trusted her.” The investor described receiving phony documents from King that included fake photos of cars and luxury watches King apparently claimed they were going to lend against in order to “give the illusion of security and legitimacy…”

“This wasn’t a mistake,” the investor wrote. “It was an elaborate, sustained scheme built on lie after lie. What she did took planning, effort, and cold disregard for the damage it would cause. She took not only my money, but my peace, my trust in others, and my ability to feel safe in my relationships.”

King’s eye-popping lifestyle and tales of around-the-clock gambling drew headlines when she was first accused in a federal civil lawsuit in early 2023 of scamming a lender out of more than $10 million.

King — through her Newport Beach-based King Family Lending LLC — provided short-term, high-interest loans to professional athletes, celebrities and other wealthy individuals, she acknowledged in a written plea deal. The loans were supposed to be secured by the borrowers, whose assets included designer handbags, watches, luxury cars, yachts an earnings from guaranteed sports contracts.

Investors, whom King recruited from January 2022 to January 2023, were told that their funds were secured by the same collateral as the loans themselves. If a borrower defaulted, King assured them she would sell the collateral to pay the investor in full.

King claimed to the investors that she would keep a percentage of the interest earned from their loans and would pass along the remaining percentage of the interest to the investors, along with their initial investment.

Those promised loans, however, never actually existed.

King spent the majority of the funds on a six-month stay at the Wynn Las Vegas resort, where she gambled “24/7” and lost an estimated $6 million to $7 million, according to a lawsuit investors have filed against her. As part of her plea deal, she also admitted to buying a $132,156 Porsche Taycan electric sports car, prosecutors allege.

In all, King in her plea deal admitted to defrauding five investors out of $8.7 million.

One of the investors — British Virgin Islands-based LDR International Limited — has sued King in federal court for breach of contract, fraud and theft.

LDR International alleges that King provided phony title documents, appraisals, photographs and contracts, according to court filings. At one point, LDR alleges, King sent them a photo of herself with NFL quarterbacks Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen on a Las Vegas golf course in June 2022 to demonstrate her connection to high-profile athletes.

Ronald Richards, a Beverly Hills attorney who represented LDR International, ultimately took matters into his own hands in order to prevent King from gambling away what was left of the investor funds. Richard alerted various Las Vegas casinos and asked employees to let him know if they spotted King.

A cocktail waitress who allegedly had been victimized by King snapped a photo of her seated at a gaming table at Resorts World Las Vegas. Richards sent the photo to casino security, who used facial recognition technology to confirm King’s identity and then escorted her from the property.

King has previously accused her now ex-husband, Kamran Abbas-Vahid — a French citizen who lives in Morocco — of pressuring her to gamble loan proceeds in order to recoup the money she owed LDR International.

King, in her own court filings, has alleged that Abbas-Vahid did not work and had no money and claimed that she purchased two Long Beach buildings valued at $5 million to house his failed cannabis business. She also claimed her husband would accompany her as she played in the high-limit slot room at the Wynn Las Vegas and would collect her winnings when she hit a large jackpot.

Staff writer Scott Schwebke contributed to this report.