SARA King – AKA Lady Mafia – had the designer clothes, pink champagne and a husband descended from royalty – but her addiction to excitement turned this glam American lawyer into a lawless criminal.
Dressed in head-to-toe , Sara looked every inch the high-powered lawyer as she strutted into federal court in Orange County, .
Her hair extensions were pulled back into a sleek bun and she was ready to do business.
But she wasn’t there to defend a client. It was the summer of 2023 and the 41-year-old attorney was facing charges of .
It was part of a that saw her swindle an estimated $10million from friends and business associates to fund a lavish lifestyle that included designer clothes, jewellery, a suite at the and the best seat in all the casinos.
In a case that both baffled and gripped , King was dubbed “”;, “the Slot Whisperer”; and – her favourite nickname – “Lady Mafia.”;
After pleading guilty to her crimes, she was sentenced on May 5 this year by an federal judge to 21 months in prison, and ordered to pay more than $8million in restitution.
Her shocking story has been laid bare in The Binge Crimes: Lady Mafia, in which investigative journalist Michele McPhee spends hours with the glamorous scammer trying to unpick her tall tales.
“Her charisma pulls people in. She’s obviously very attractive – she’s not just pretty, she’s glamorous – so I’m sure that helped her navigate her way around the shady underbelly,”; Michele tells Fabulous.
“I think she spent most of the money on clothes. She’s one of those people who has to be head-to-toe in designer labels,”; says Michele, who believes that King doesn’t quite comprehend the damage she has done, and points out that she changes her story many times during the podcast.
“It’s very unusual that somebody would participate in anything like this podcast before they’ve faced a judge [for sentencing]. But I think she was motivated by wanting people to think she’s innocent and that it was all a big mistake.”;
King grew up in Newport Beach, Orange County, home to sprawling mansions, golf courses and Ferraris.
Money wasn’t tight, and her parents enjoyed a happy marriage and were successful insurance brokers. She wanted what they had – and more.
Before embarking on a life of dodgy deals, King built a successful career in law, fuelled by her burning ambition to be a badass businesswoman instead of a trophy wife.
“I wanted to be the ‘It’ girl. I wanted to have a seat at the boys’ table, without sleeping around,”; she said in the podcast. “I can sell anything. I can sell fire to the devil.”;
With a million-dollar home in Newport Beach, and an ambitious husband, Gerar Jamal – a consultant in the environmental industry, who she married in 2014 – King soon had everything she’d dreamed of. But she didn’t stop there.
I wanted to have a seat at the boys’ table. I can sell anything – I can sell fire to the devil
Sara King
Describing her high-flying job at a law firm as “a lot of work and not a lot of money,”; by 2017 King was looking for new opportunities to fund her pink-champagne lifestyle.
She and Gerar began to invest in different ventures, including money lending, where they would rake in high interest for funding short-term loans.
King – who hung out in Orange County’s hottest spots, where she met men who’d offer her more chances to invest in their dodgy deals – said: “I was looking for a way out of law. It was so miserable and I needed to make money.”;
She soon earned a reputation as a “fixer”; who could help rich people get anything they wanted, from prostitutes to puppies.
In May 2018, after her marriage had broken down, a mutual friend introduced her to Kamran Pahlavi, the handsome grandson of Princess Ashraf, who apparently invested in real estate.
After a two-hour dinner in , the pair clicked.
“I was just taken aback by the pizzazz of it all,”; said King. “I felt a connection, and to this day I wish I never did.
“He told me, ‘I have no money, all my watches are fake, I have nothing to my name, so if that’s what you’re interested in, please walk.’ He came clean about everything, saying, ‘I have a lot of baggage, I have three ex-wives, I have kids. But I want to make something of myself’.”;
Fixer for the rich
Besotted, King suggested they start a business together – but the pressure to make more money led her to take more risks.
“I think they genuinely had love for each other,”; says Michele.
“She was the female Bernie Madoff [the US fraudster who was jailed for operating a dodgy ‘pyramid’ investment scheme] and he was the , who got to sit around and not do much.”;
In January 2022, business was booming for her company, King Family Lending.
She established herself as someone who could supply short-term loans to celebrities and professional athletes – as long as they were happy to pay the 30% interest.
Hobnobbing with NFL stars, including , bragging about her high-profile connections and shopping for designer clothes were all in a day’s work for her.
She also reportedly harboured ambitions of going into .
She and Kamran married in February 2022 – but behind the facade, King was doing less lending and more spending.
She was using her investors’ money – which was intended to fund high-interest loans – to splash out on her own lavish lifestyle and . And the collateral she claimed she had collected to guarantee them didn’t exist.
By November 2022, Kamran had called time on their relationship – later claiming it was due to all her lies – and moved to .
By the end of the year, they were divorced, after Kamran cited “irreconcilable differences”;.
Meanwhile, King moved into a $6,000-a-night suite at the Wynn in , which she’d been gifted because she was such a “good customer”; – complete with marble counters, a private infinity pool and a butler.
In the casinos, where she was once known as The Slot Whisperer for her winning streaks, King’s luck was starting to run out.
At one point, she was away $20,000 a day.
“I always had that kind of money, so 20 grand a day is no big deal,”; she said. “It got scarier when I was dropping $50,000 to $100,000 a day.”;
On November 11, 2022, it all fell apart. King was lying in the bath of her suite when hotel staff burst into her room and ordered her to leave.
Gambling $20k a day
A lawyer named Ronald Richards, who was representing one of the clients she’d swindled, was on her tail and had informed the Wynn of her dodgy deals.
He also set about shutting her gambling down by making sure she was barred from casinos.
“As she got kicked out of each one, I’d call her and say, ‘How was your escort today?’ because I wanted her to know I was on to her,”; Ronald told Michele in the podcast.
“Sometimes she was mad, because she was embarrassed. I told her, ‘I’m going to cut off everything you like to do. Your days of gambling are over and we’ll make sure no casino allows you to ever wager a dollar’.”;
On February 11, 2023, he filed a lawsuit against King on behalf of the man named “Laurent R”;, just one of the investors in King Family Lending who’d lost millions, and the federal prosecutor drew up a criminal complaint of wire (financial) fraud and money laundering charges.
Ronald also tipped off the media, and King hit the headlines for being a scammer.
That’s when she realised she’d reached the end of the road.
In March 2023, she checked herself into rehab – then checked out again, heading to her LA apartment, where eviction notices were waiting for her.
Betrayal, lies and theft
Her parents took her home to Orange County, then her mum drove her to the headquarters in .
There was no warrant for her arrest, so she claims she wrote to the Attorney General to get a meeting about her case.
In June 2023, King appeared in federal court and pleaded guilty to charges of wire fraud and money laundering, admitting she’d caused five investors to lose more than $8million.
Three of them – all former close friends – were watching from the gallery, including trauma surgeon Amal Obaid-Schmid, who’d lost her family’s life savings of $400,000.
While King agreed to pay restitution of at least $8,785,045, the real total of her scamming has been estimated to be nearer to $10million, with more possible victims who, as yet, haven’t come forward.
Before King’s sentencing, which was postponed twice, she was lying low in a small apartment with her parents back in Orange County and joking that she was taking Prozac to get through it all.
Kamran is still in Morocco, a non-extradition country, and hasn’t faced any charges.
“She betrayed me. Lied to me. Stole from me. Embarrassed me. Humiliated me. That’s not bad for a reason to break up,”; he has said.
He added: “When I realised what she had done, I left and never looked back. To tell you the truth, it kills me to do this, but she is sick and she needs to be stopped before she scams the wrong person and she gets in real trouble.”;
He also claimed that King had sent him threatening messages following their split, including one that warned: “Just wait and see, your time is coming.”;
“Obviously, he’s going to want to separate himself from all this,”; says Michele.
Anna Delvey comparisons
While awaiting her sentencing, King tried to find employment.
“Everybody recognised her, so she couldn’t work,”; reveals Michele, who says she forged a genuine friendship with King over the course of making the podcast.
“She got a job at Nordstrom [the department store], but got fired once they realised who she was, so ended up working as a home helper for the elderly, which was a huge step down.
“People have compared her to Anna Delvey, but Sara herself points out she’s not a total fraud because she had money, she was an attorney and she’s savvy,”; says Michele.
“I have respect for her work ethic. She was definitely a hustler and that’s what’s so mesmerising. She could have easily lived that Real Housewives life and gone to Pilates at the country club all day long, but she wanted to work.
“She’s a smart woman, but she had such a facade, and she told so many little white lies.”;
- Live News  The Binge Crimes: Lady Mafia is out now on all podcast providers
