Lawyer sentenced for stealing nearly $9M from lenders, gambling it away in Las Vegas

Sara King, a suspended California lawyer, was sentenced to federal prison after she stole $8.7 million to support her “lavish lifestyle” and gambling habit in Las Vegas, according to court records.

King pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering nearly two years ago. On Monday, a federal judge in California ruled that King would spend 21 months in prison and pay the money back in restitution.

U.S. District Judge David Carter, also ordered that King be under supervised release for three years after she is released, records show.

According to her plea agreement, King Family Lending, run by King, claimed “to provide short-term, high-interest loans to celebrities, professional athletes, and other high-net-worth individuals secured by the borrower’s own assets, including designer handbags, watches, luxury automobiles, yachts, and earnings from guaranteed professional sports contracts.”

Prosecutors said that King recruited investors to fund the business loans, claiming that the investments were secured by the same collateral as the loans. She promised to hold the collateral, and if a borrower defaulted, she would sell it to pay the investor in full, prosecutors said.

King also said she would keep a percentage of the interest earned from the loans and pass along a percentage to the investor along with the initial investment, prosecutors said.

Instead of funding the loans, prosecutors said, King spent the money on herself.

During her sentencing, King’s defense attorney, Sam Cross, told the court that his client’s alcohol and drug abuse, specifically her addiction to Xanax, as well as her gambling issues in Las Vegas, isolated King from friends and family and drove her toward the multimillion-dollar fraud scheme, news outlets reported.

A federal lawsuit filed against King in 2023 alleged that she had moved into the Wynn Las Vegas resort and hotel, lived there for six months, and “gambled 24/7.” The plaintiff, a British Virgin Islands-based lender called LDR International, accused King of defrauding the company of $10.2 million.

Carter had ruled a “default judgment” in the suit, meaning that the court favored the plaintiff because the defendant did not respond or show up. King has until July 14 to report to prison, outlets have reported.

Contact Akiya Dillon at adillon@reviewjournal.com.