Lawyer spent over $10 million in loans for fake clients to live in a Las Vegas hotel and gamble '24/7' for six months, lawsuit alleges
Ethan Miller/Getty Images
- A California lawyer allegedly spent $10 million in loans for fake clients to fund a Las Vegas lifestyle for six months.
- LDR International, the company claiming to have funded the loans, sued Sara Jacqueline King this month.
- LDR claims King provided falsified documents to secure 97 loans in 2022.
A lending company filed a lawsuit last week against a California-based lawyer alleging she took out $10 million in loans for fake clients that she used to fund a life living in a Las Vegas hotel and gambling "24/7" for at least six months of 2022.
LDR International Limited, based in the British Virgin Islands, filed a 33-page complaint in California Central District Court accusing Sara Jacqueline King, and her company, King Family Lending, of breach of contract, fraud, and civil theft.
The company accused King of providing them with falsified documents and evidence of collateral for a total of 97 loans amounting to $10,258,500 from January to October 2022.
The suit alleges King would submit a "Secured Promissory Note" to LDR International as proof that the loan terms had been agreed to, but the personal information of the loan's recipient would be redacted. LDR claims this prevented them from ever knowing for sure whether the loans they thought they were funding were actually given to the intended client.
King allegedly served as an intermediary in the loan process separate from her law practice, King Reuben, starting when she formed the King Family Lending LLC in February 2020. The suit does not include any information about how much loan-related activity the company performed prior to becoming involved with LDR in January 2022.
LDR claims that King's ex-husband, Kamran Pahlavi, has "since fled to Morocco," but confirmed to the lending company that King was "engaged in a massive fraud" related to her involvement with LDR.
King allegedly used most of the money lent by LDR to fund her own lifestyle, and at some point in 2022, "moved into the Wynn Las Vegas resort and hotel, lived there for six months, and gambled 24/7," the suit alleges.
LDR also claims that King, a licensed attorney based in Newport Beach, California, kept submitting requests for loans for months after her license as a finance lender expired in April 2022. King claimed the license was yet to be renewed because of an administrative issue, which LDR said it believes to be false.
The complaint also includes a spreadsheet detailing the amounts, duration, and collateral provided for each of the 97 loans. LDR claims the list of collateral — assets a borrower agrees can be seized by the lender if they fail to pay back the loan — came in a variety of forms ranging from luxury cars and jewelry to earnings from guaranteed professional sports contracts and were fabricated along with the rest of the details of the loans.
As additional evidence of her lifestyle and connections to high-profile athletes, King sent LDR a picture of herself with NFL quarterbacks Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes, and Josh Allen. The picture and others appearing to show King's successful lifestyle were seemingly meant to increase LDR's confidence in the fact that she was becoming a successful lender, and trust that they could continue to fund loans through her.
The picture appears to have been taken during The Match, a televised exhibition round of golf between the NFL stars that took place last summer at the Wynn Golf Club in Las Vegas, which is connected to the resort where LDR alleges King lived for six months.
California Central District Court
LDR also included in the complaint a screenshot allegedly from King showing three Bank of America accounts that totals just $12, which she claimed is all the money she has left to her name as of earlier this month.
The company alleged that King is still asking for money to make back what she may have gambled away, and claims she was still presenting the lending company with fake deals as of February 9.
The last loan funded by LDR was issued in October, and matured, or reached the date when the loan was originally agreed to be repaid in full, last week. While the suit says King has paid interest on some of the loans, none have been paid back in full and the lawyer is allegedly now in default on all 97.
A request for comment to one email on King Family Lending's website was bounced back to Insider as the address didn't exist or was inactive, and one sent to another address on the site was not immediately returned.