A Newport Beach attorney pleaded guilty Monday, July 24, to swindling investors out of more than $8 million to finance a lavish lifestyle of jewelry, cars, gambling, and a six-month stay at a luxurious Las Vegas resort.
Sara Jacqueline King, 39, who operates King Family Lending LLC and is a partner in the King Reuben law firm, faces a maximum of 20 years in prison for wire fraud and 10 years for money laundering at sentencing, which is scheduled for Jan. 8 in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana.
Newport Beach-based King Family Lending provided short-term, high-interest loans to professional athletes, celebrities and other wealthy individuals, according to a plea agreement. The loans supposedly were secured by the borrowers, whose assets included designer handbags, watches, luxury automobiles, yachts and earnings from guaranteed sports contracts
King told investors, whom she recruited from January 2022 to January 2023, their funds were secured by the same collateral as the loans themselves. She promised that, in the event a borrower defaulted, she would sell the collateral to pay the investor in full, according to prosecutors.
King then would purportedly keep a percentage of the interest earned from the loans and pass along the remaining percentage of the interest to investors, along with their initial investment, the plea agreement states.
However, King never initiated or funded any loan and instead used investors’ money to gamble at Las Vegas casinos and support her lavish lifestyle, which included buying a $132,156 Porsche Taycan electric sports car, according to prosecutors. She has admitted to defrauding five investors out of $8.7 million.
One of the investors, LDR International Limited, based in the British Virgin Islands, is suing King in federal court for breach of contract, fraud and theft.
King’s guilty plea to criminal charges “cements the fraud” committed against LDR International, said Ronald Richards, a Beverly Hills attorney representing…
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