Lawyer Convicted of Spending Over $9M of Clients’ Money on Las Vegas Casinos and Her ‘Lavish’ Lifestyle

A California attorney has been sentenced to federal prison for embezzling $8.7 million of her clients’ money to fuel her gambling habit in Las Vegas.

On Monday, May 5, Sara Jacqueline King was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to wire fraud and money laundering charges, the Los Angeles Times and Daily Mail reported. She was also ordered to pay $8,785,045 in restitution.

The Newport Beach attorney, 41, recruited investors under her business name, King Family Lending LLC, to facilitate “short-term loans to celebrities, professional athletes and other high-net-worth individuals secured by the borrower’s own assets” in a fraud scheme between January 2022 and January 2023, per the L.A. Times and ABC 7 Los Angeles.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Central California said after filing charges against King in 2023 that she “never initiated or funded any loan. Instead, she used victims’ funds to gamble at Las Vegas casinos and support her lavish lifestyle,” per the New York Post.

In a separate civil lawsuit by LDR International Limited of the British Virgin Islands, King was accused of borrowing 97 loans amounting to $10.2 million from the company from January to October 2022. 

She “spent the majority of the funds loaned by plaintiff to King Lending to gamble in Las Vegas, fund an extravagant lifestyle, and for other personal uses by King. Plaintiff is informed and believes that King moved into the Wynn Las Vegas resort and hotel, lived there for six months, and gambled 24/7,” the lawsuit stated, according to the L.A. Times.

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King alleged 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,” per the New York Post.

She blew $8.7 million on “lavish” spending and gambling in Las Vegas, losing $6-7 million at the Wynn Las Vegas resort while living there. King also admitted that she spent $132,156 of investor money on a Porsche Taycan electric sports car, according to the outlet.

King’s attorney Sam Cross said that she suffered from a Xanax addiction and “consumed 10 drinks a day” while gambling in Las Vegas “to maintain her lifestyle,” per the L.A. Times. She has since put herself into a rehabilitation facility, according to Cross. 

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King will reportedly report to prison on July 14 and will have to complete three years of supervised release after her release from prison, the outlet reported.

Former client of King, Yumiko Sturdivant, told ABC 7, “Let me tell you she didn’t only steal from a billionaire. She stole from normal people like me. What she has done is evil and there is no way she can get out of this.”