Sara Jacqueline King, a Californian attorney, led a double life as a high rolling gambling superstar in Las Vegas. She spent almost two years living high off the hog in one of Wynn’s VIP suites, which is set aside for high rollers who drop at least $300,000 a day. Yet under that mask of success she was swindling investors out of millions.

King who called herself the “slots whisperer” had supposedly had a sure-fire method for winning big in the slots. That was simply one of the many illusions she cajoled investors to pump millions into her loan business. In fact, that money went to her maintaining her extravagant lifestyle and gambling, booze and prescription pills addiction.

King Family Lending LLC was to be the company that would make high interest loans to celebrities, athletes and the rich. However, when investigators examined the period, they found not one good loan was ever issued over the year-long period in question. Instead, King spent the money on herself and for feeding her addiction. Five victims fell victim to scam; LDR International who had invested more than $ 10.2 million.

It was with LDR that suspicion first began to stir and who filed a civil suit against King during February 2023. The search from the FBI which followed after that, led to King pleading guilty to the charges of wire fraud and money laundering in July 2023. In 2024 May, she received 21 months of federal imprisonment and an order to pay $8.785 million to the victims she duped.

That was only the start of the fall out. Her marriage imploded in the scandal and her husband, who was the great-nephew of Iran’s last shah, walked away after he found out just how deceptive she has been. In a statement to the court, he compared her to “the female Bernie Madoff”. Her whole lifestyle had rotted away under the weight of her own lies by the time she was evicted from the Wynn in November 2023. Casino officials had found out that she was using other guests and staff members to do her scam.

King’s lawyer, Sam Cross, pleaded with the court to hand him a softer sentence, house arrest or six months imprisonment. He said King was outright addicted and she lost everything, her job, her marriage, her reputation. He said that her actions were part of a spiral down that was driven by compulsive gambling.

However, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Waier balked hard. She cited premeditated nature of the fraud and the fact that King’s former job as a licensed attorney as aggravators that should merit harsher sentence. Waier also said something about King’s behaviour after her arrest; she appeared on “The Binge Crime Podcast” in October 2024, and there she seemed to be proud of her criminal notoriety. She referred to herself as “Lady Mafia” and claimed to be able to “sell fire to the devil” in other words expressed no remorse.

One of the victim’s, a friend of King’s ex-husband, filed a letter to the court claiming that King has been using her legal knowledge to manipulate and betray those persons who spoke trustingly with her. The scheme, according to the letter, was “elaborate and premeditated” and the emotional and financial damage to the victims was severe.

Sara King is a case in point as to how white-collared crime can rob lives and how looks can be deceptive. Underneath the glitz and glamour of Las Vegas high roller life lay a swindle, a calculating homage, which destroyed several victims with peoples’ money. Now King is not only looking at prison time but also years of paying restitution and a ruined legacy.