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A US lawyer was sentenced to 21 months in prison for embezzlement.
Sara Jacqueline King embezzled $8.7 million to fund her gambling habit.
King operated under King Family Lending LLC, targeting high-profile investors.
A US lawyer has been sentenced to 21 months in jail after she embezzled Rs 74 crore ($8.7 million) of clients’ money to fuel her gambling habit in Las Vegas. The woman, identified as Sara Jacqueline King, was handed the sentence after pleading guilty to wire fraud and money laundering charges, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.
California-based King, 41, recruited investors under her business name, King Family Lending LLC, to “provide short-term, high-interest loans to celebrities, professional athletes and other high-net-worth individuals” in a fraud scheme between January 2022 and January 2023.
As per the prosecutors, 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 defaults, she would sell it to pay the investor in full. However, she never funded any loan and instead spent the money on herself.
The lawsuit stated that King “spent the majority of the funds loaned by complainant to King Lending to gamble in Las Vegas fund an extravagant lifestyle, and for other personal uses by King”.
“Complainant is informed and believes that King moved into the Wynn Las Vegas resort and hotel, lived there for six months, and gambled 24/7.”
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King’s attorney, Sam Cross, batted for a lenient, six-month sentence for her client, but Assistant US Attorney Jennifer Waier argued that the amount of money lost by the victims and the fact that she was an attorney required a stiffer sentence.
Ms Waier also informed that King appeared on the “Lady Mafia” podcast to discuss her crimes before sentencing.
“It was brazen. It went on for a long time,” said Ms Waier, adding that King had sensationalised her crimes.
“She was stealing money and playing the slots in Las Vegas. She lived on $9 million for a long period of time.”
