Lady Mafia | 3. Sell Fire to the Devil

Summary

The Binge Crimes: Lady Mafia – Episode 3: "Sell Fire to the Devil"

Host: Michelle McPhee
Production: Sony Music Entertainment / Campside Media
Release Date: November 15, 2024

---

Introduction: Sara King's Illusory Success

Timestamp: [01:04 – 05:57]

Michelle McPhee introduces Sara King, a multifaceted individual known by various monikers such as the “Female Bernie Madoff” and the “Anna Delvey of the OC.” Sara's ascent in Orange County's high-stakes financial and social circles is depicted as glamorous yet fraught with deception. McPhee sets the stage by highlighting Sara's transition from a respectable lawyer to a figure entangled in shady financial dealings.

---

Sara and Cameron: A Passionate Yet Troubled Relationship

Timestamp: [01:53 – 04:18]

Sara King's romantic involvement with Cameron Pahlavi, a nephew of the last Shah of Iran, is explored in depth. Their meeting is portrayed as a fairy-tale romance where Sara finds in Cameron the qualities she lacked in her previous marriage.

• Sara King: “When the food came to the table, he would serve me first... It felt like I was watching a rom com because it was that intense.”
  [02:02]

However, Cameron's revelation about his lack of financial stability and personal baggage introduces tension into their relationship.

• Sara King: “He told me... I have no money... I want to make something of myself. And I said, well, let's try and do that.”
  [02:34]

Despite initial challenges, Sara becomes deeply invested both emotionally and financially in Cameron's entrepreneurial dreams.

---

Entanglement with Brian Quinn and SEC Investigation

Timestamp: [06:42 – 10:07]

Sara's association with Brian Quinn, her brother, becomes a pivotal point as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigates Quinn for involvement in a pump and dump scheme. This fraudulent activity involved manipulating stock prices of shell companies like Pharmaceuticals to enrich themselves at the expense of investors.

• Michelle McPhee: “Brian Quinn decided to cooperate with the Feds, too. He walked free, but would be kept on a short leash, especially near Wall Street.”
  [04:48 – 05:09]

Sara remains loyal to Quinn despite his legal troubles, even as she faces the repercussions of their financial misdeeds.

---

Noble One: The Marijuana Venture that Crumbled

Timestamp: [11:06 – 19:32]

Sara and Cameron embark on a marijuana business named Noble One, aiming to market premium boutique strains and edible products. Initially promising, the venture falters due to Sara's overextension and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Sara King: “Cannabis is something that when it was coming legal, I was like, okay, well, Cameron wanted to do vapes... I wanted Cameron to love me so badly that I was like, okay, I'll get the building for you.”
  [11:47 – 12:00]

The business failure leaves Sara entangled in two million-dollar mortgages, forcing her to seek risky financial solutions to salvage her standing and protect her family's home.

---

Descent into Hard Money Lending

Timestamp: [19:39 – 33:36]

Faced with mounting debts from Noble One, Sara turns to hard money lending, leveraging her connections and engaging with loan sharks to secure additional funds. Her transformation into "Lady Mafia" is marked by deceptive practices and unethical lending strategies.

• Sara King: “I can sell anything. I can sell fire to the devil. I promise you that.”
  [26:14 – 26:20]

Sara's establishment of King Family Lending signals her shift from a legitimate professional to a predatory lender, exploiting relationships and trust to fund her ventures.

---

The Manna Kadar Lawsuit: A Clear Warning

Timestamp: [23:07 – 29:43]

A significant turning point occurs when Sara borrows $25,000 from Manna Kadar, a fellow entrepreneur, using a counterfeit luxury watch as collateral. When the loan defaults, Sara's deceit is exposed, leading to a lawsuit that underscores her manipulative tendencies.

• Sara King: “I borrowed $25,000 from her, and I had an AP watch that was worth it, so it wasn't a problem.”
  [25:39 – 25:46]

Despite her assurances of repayment, the reality of a fake asset surfaces, revealing Sara's willingness to fabricate and manipulate to maintain her financial schemes.

---

Conclusion: The Making of Lady Mafia

Timestamp: [32:40 – 33:36]

Michelle McPhee concludes the episode by illustrating Sara King's complete transformation from a respected lawyer to Lady Mafia, a figure synonymous with financial deceit and manipulation. Sara's charismatic yet unscrupulous nature allows her to navigate and exploit high society's financial landscapes, setting the stage for further unraveling in subsequent episodes.

• Sara King: “Love that whole thing because I'm totally all about the mafia.”
  [33:21 – 33:36]

---

Key Takeaways

• Sara King's Dual Facade: Balancing her public persona as a successful lawyer and realtor with her hidden financial manipulations.
• Relationship Dynamics: Sara's relationship with Cameron Pahlavi is both a source of personal fulfillment and financial downfall.
• Financial Deception: Her involvement in fraudulent schemes, from pump and dump schemes to hard money lending.
• Legal Consequences: The lawsuit with Manna Kadar serves as a critical indicator of Sara's unethical practices.
• Transformation into Lady Mafia: Sara's evolution into a deceptive and manipulative figure within Orange County's elite circles.

---

Notable Quotes

• Sara King: “I can sell anything. I can sell fire to the devil.”
  [26:14 – 26:20]

• Michelle McPhee: “The lawsuit laid out her M.O. the strategy she'd used to swindle other people after she'd go on a charm offensive...”
  [29:43]

• Sara King: “I always intended on paying her. So it wasn't like the biggest deal.”
  [29:18]

---

Final Notes

"Sell Fire to the Devil" delves into the intricate web of Sara King's rise and fall, illustrating how ambition and deceit can intertwine to create a compelling yet cautionary tale. Michelle McPhee masterfully unpacks Sara's motivations, relationships, and the consequences of her actions, providing listeners with a riveting glimpse into the life of Lady Mafia.

For more thrilling true crime stories, subscribe to The Binge Crimes on Apple Podcasts or visit GetTheBinge.com.

Transcript

[Jesse Tyler Ferguson]

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[Michelle McPhee]

Listen to all episodes of Lady Mafia ad free right now by subscribing to the binge. Visit the binge channel on Apple Podcasts and hit subscribe at the top of the page or visit getthebinge.com to get access. Wherever you listen the binge feed your true crime obsession the Bench. When Sarah meets Cameron Pahlavi, she reveals a different side of herself. To me, he's a prince. Her prince. Nephew of the last Shah of Iran. Saira's marriage was crumbling. She met Cameron at a hotel restaurant in Beverly Hills. He was just so smooth, a gentleman.

[Sara King]

When the food came to the table, he would serve me first. Like, he was just very elegant about the way he handled things. Very nice. To all the waitstaff, Cameron was the.

[Michelle McPhee]

Total opposite of her ex, which is.

[Sara King]

What she needed that night. It was. Nothing happened. I just said, okay, well, good night. But I felt it. Like at that moment I felt I was excited. I had the feeling that this could.

[Michelle McPhee]

Actually be something she found in Cameron. All the things she wanted in her partner.

[Sara King]

We could have endless hours of conversation. I've never felt anything like when I was with Cameron, it was like a fairy tale.

[Michelle McPhee]

She got the sense they were more than friends and one night confirmed it.

[Sara King]

That's when he told me. He's like, I have no money. All my watches are fake. I have nothing to my name. So if that's what you're interested in, like, please just walk. I have my own money, so I didn't need his. He came clean about everything, saying, I Have a lot of baggage. I have three ex wives, I have kids. I have, you know, this whole gamut of issues and I have no money, but I want to make something of myself. And I said, well, let's try and do that. Let's start a business. That was the night he first kissed me at the bar at the Montage in Beverly Hills.

[Michelle McPhee]

No money, a laundry list of problems. Living on hopes and dreams. So what was Sarah thinking?

[Sara King]

Oh, my God, I was head over heels for this guy. Are you kidding me? He was. It was like, you know, I didn't ever felt any of that with my husband, my first husband. So it felt like we knew each other for years and it felt like it was something out of a movie. It felt like I was watching a rom com because it was that intense.

[Michelle McPhee]

And that passionate, but it wasn't the stuff of movies. Sara just couldn't see it at the time.

[Sara King]

He had said to me one morning, I forget what it is. But he said, you know, you're not a supermodel. It's just a fact. And ever since he had said that to me, I was like, wow, that's really real. In his circumstances because he's dated the real deal, the real supermodels.

[Michelle McPhee]

Cameron took her down a peg and sadly, it worked.

[Sara King]

Ever since then, I just, I had. I already have low self esteem, so the fact that that happened to me when he said that, it just, it was always in the back of my head. Any super hot girl in the room, I would get paranoid and jealous and upset and so everything, basically that Gerard did not have, I saw in Cameron that he had. And that just blinded me to the bad parts.

[Michelle McPhee]

We've reached out to Cameron Pahlavi multiple times. Finally this fall, he responded to questions we emailed him. In the couple of pages he sent, he sounded warm and a bit world weary. Cameron didn't want to give his full account for the podcast, but he did say plenty. He confirmed he told Sahra that he didn't have any money. We had a friend of the podcast read his email. He spent part of his childhood in France, hence the accent. This is what he told me.

[Jesse Tyler Ferguson]

My whole life, women have been interested in my status and my family's wealth. Sara talked a lot about money when we first met. I didn't want her or anyone else to get involved with the father. False idea of me. That wasn't the truth. What's the point of lying to someone you're supposed to build a life with?

[Michelle McPhee]

At this point, I think Sarah was riding high. She had a brother in Brian Quinn. She was sitting at the tables with the big boys. She had a new love that was everything to her. Business was promising. Sara was on top of the world. When she tells me about all of the risks she took, it's like she thought she could pull anything off. It only took a few short years for it to all go to hell. From Sony Music Entertainment, this is Lady Mafia. The story about going from lawyer to lawless, living high and blowing millions. I'm your host, Michelle McPhee. This is episode three, Sell Fire to the Devil.

[Jesse Tyler Ferguson]

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[Michelle McPhee]

Backing up for a moment. In 2018, Sara was being taken around town and introduced to the high life of Orange County. She was Brian Quinn's sister. Around that same time, the securities and Exchange Commission, the SEC was looking into Quinn's associates. The SEC is the government agency that protects the market from being riddled with frauds and scams. And the SEC was looking into Brian Quinn and his friends because they were embroiled in a million dollar scheme to defraud investors. Here's how it worked. They secretly owned controlling shares of companies through shell organizations. One of them was called Pharmaceuticals.

[Jesse Tyler Ferguson]

So we basically have a broad platform drug delivery technology.

[Michelle McPhee]

They marketed the hell out of the company's stock. Then once the price ballooned, they offloaded their own shares and got rich. This old trick is called a pump and dump scheme. It's a classic. You might have seen something like it in the Wolf of Wall Street.

[Jesse Tyler Ferguson]

Well, reason for the call today, John, is. Something just came across my desk, John. It is perhaps the best thing I've seen in the last months. If you have 60 seconds, I'd like to share the idea with you. You got a minute? Name of the company? Aerotine.

[Michelle McPhee]

The main target of the SEC's investigation was a guy named Maury Tobin. He's a colleague of our man, Brian Quinn. Early 2018, federal agents locked in. They raided Tobin's French chateau style mansion in la. Tobin turned himself into the Feds and started rolling on everybody. He told the Feds everything he knew. Singing like a canary, as they say. This is where our story branches, though part of it you may have already heard.

[Jesse Tyler Ferguson]

Maury Tobin was facing the possibility of years in prison for securities fraud. But he had a get out of jail free card, reportedly telling investigators about a Yale University coach who was willing to take a bribe. And that led to the largest college admissions scam in the nation.

[Michelle McPhee]

Yeah, the college admission scandal, Also known as Operation Varsity Blues.

[Sara King]

33 parents, nine coaches.

[Jesse Tyler Ferguson]

The FBI uncovered what we believe is a rigged system.

[Sara King]

Meantime, career fallout for actress Lori Loughlin.

[Michelle McPhee]

The scheme focused on bribing coaches and.

[Sara King]

Administrators to label students as recruited athletes to boost their chances of getting into schools.

[Michelle McPhee]

It was a big deal. You likely heard about it. But here's the other part you probably haven't heard. The part that's important to our story. It appears that Maury Tobin also gave the Feds Brian Quinn, and he was added to the SEC complaint about the original pump and dump scheme. Mr. Mafia Light was screwed. Throughout all of this. Sarah stuck by Quinn's side, even though by now, Quinn hadn't paid back what she'd invested in his company with her ex. Even with all that baggage, Sara helped her brother out. It's baffling. Obviously, that's her story. We could not reach Brian Quinn for comment. And trust me, we tried.

[Sara King]

All I know is he did come to me with a notice of indictment and he asked me for help.

[Michelle McPhee]

Maury Tobin got what he was looking for when he snitched leniency. He was sentenced to a lousy four months in prison for stock fraud. From what we've seen across court records, Brian Quinn decided to cooperate with the Feds, too. He walked free, but would be kept on a short leash, especially near Wall Street. But do you know who wasn't? Sara King. She told me she was free to keep running with the big boys of the oc. Okay, now that we've had that little detour back to the love story, or whatever you want to call it, Sara King would have done anything for Cameron. She wanted to show that she was worth it. And for Sara, that meant showing how brilliant, how resourceful she could be.

[Sara King]

I was never like the pretty girl sitting at the table. That's how she got things done. I was the smartest so, you know, that was important to me in business.

[Michelle McPhee]

When Cameron said that he wanted his own business, Sara dove right in. Cameron wanted to start a marijuana company called Noble One that would bring boutique strains to market. Edibles, too. Cookies and caramels called Granny B Goods.

[Sara King]

Cannabis is something that when it was coming legal, I was like, okay, well, Cameron wanted to do vapes. But there was two buildings to buy, and I bought those for Cameron because he said he wanted to run this business.

[Michelle McPhee]

Initially. Their marijuana venture was off to a good start. Noble One had a killer business plan in 2019. They would offer quality boutique pot, not the crappy stuff flooding the market. They wanted to sell edibles, too.

[Sara King]

I don't know what's going on with weed. I don't smoke it, I don't grow it. I don't do anything. I was the real estate piece. That's what I came in. I wanted Cameron to love me so badly that I was like, okay, I'll get the building for you. I'll do whatever it takes.

[Michelle McPhee]

It's quite remarkable, actually. Just when she was about to get everything she wanted, it seemed to slip through her fingers again. Because, of course, Sara told me there were complications. And the purchase of those two industrial buildings in Long beach was a pivot point, the first gust in the shitstorm. The buildings were supposed to manufacture, grow and distribute their product. The purchase price for Both was over $3 million, and Cameron was supposed to help with the financing.

[Sara King]

He told me he had a friend who would pay 250,000, which would have been the down payment on the building.

[Michelle McPhee]

They were in the final negotiations of the purchase, and Sara would need proof that she could afford the mortgage.

[Sara King]

The night before that, the guy calls me and says, I don't trust Cameron. I don't want to give him the money. I'm not going to give you guys the money. And I'm just. I'm just losing my mind because I'm supposed to go to escrow the next day and sign the paperwork. Cameron was, you know, just very defeated. After his friend wouldn't pay the money to invest. He told me, just let it go. Who cares? Just quit.

[Michelle McPhee]

She couldn't. Who the hell? Really knows why? Oh, and by the way, she said Cameron's investor lost faith in him. But Cameron told me the investor lost confidence in her.

[Sara King]

So I go into escrow the next day on a Friday, and I sign the paperwork saying that my people just sent the money too late. I totally lied. It was not true. I just was like, okay, it buys me one week to find a lender.

[Michelle McPhee]

First, Sara went to her buddy Brian Quinn. Brian owed Sara and her ex gerar almost a million dollars according to their divorce papers.

[Sara King]

I said, hey Brian, like I need my money back. I want to buy this building Again.

[Michelle McPhee]

We can't reach Brian Quinn to see what he'd say because no one can find him. He seems to have vanished sometime after his plea deal went through in 2022. Anyhow, instead of giving Sara her money, she said Brian Quinn referred her to a loan shark to fund the quarter million dollar down payment. They typically charge high interest rates and if they're not paid, are known to turn to threats and intimidation. Brian had some handy advice for her first meeting.

[Sara King]

Look really pretty when you go to meet him, but he'll give you the money.

[Michelle McPhee]

Sara said this 90 something year old loan shark is infamous in Hollywood. And Brian Quinn gave her his number.

[Sara King]

So it was a Sunday at the Beverly Hills Tennis Club and I was in white jeans and a tight red sweater. So I walked in, sat down and I said, I need $250,000. And he said, go fuck yourself, kid. And I actually ordered a glass of whiskey on the rocks there. And I said, no, I really fucking need them. I need the money like I need to do this building. And he kept telling me, no, no, no. And so I drank my whiskey, I left and I called him for two days in a row.

[Michelle McPhee]

She offered her parents home as collateral. And finally the shark took the bait.

[Sara King]

And he said, I love who you are. You're just like me. I want to mentor you and I'll do your loan. That's how I got it.

[Michelle McPhee]

The whole scheme allowed Sara to put very little cash down on the buildings. Great idea at the time, but her future months would be hell. She had stuck herself in a $22,000 a month mortgage. If she failed to pay, they would lose the family home. And her parents had no idea what kind of donkey puts their parents house in the hands of a scary old man loan shark. She wasn't just putting herself in an extremely dangerous situation. She was going to leave her family homeless. She was skating on thin ice. And well, a 12th fatality has now.

[Jesse Tyler Ferguson]

Been reported here in the United States.

[Sara King]

And at this hour, the number of cases topping 200.

[Michelle McPhee]

When the pandemic hit, everything was gone in a puff of cherry flavored smoke.

[Sara King]

Cameron's investors gone. Covid's hitting. There was no more funding. Everyone promised they had funding and no one did.

[Michelle McPhee]

But Sara was locked into two mortgages on the buildings in Long Beach. So they had to keep going somehow. And Prince Cameron, her boyfriend, well, Cameron had an idea.

[Sara King]

He wanted to make gummy bears. These stupid fucking gummy bears?

[Michelle McPhee]

Not exactly. Cameron didn't want to make CBD gummies from scratch.

[Sara King]

He spends $50,000 on premade gummies. And then we have just a bunch of fucking gummies like in a trash bag. I'm like, well, that's not gonna sell.

[Michelle McPhee]

So they got a packaging machine and bagged those stupid fucking gummies in Sara's parents black marble K. I mean, it does not.

[Sara King]

It's not a factory, right? This is like a beautiful kitchen. And yeah, they basically packaged everything. We had these big, just huge boxes to throw them into.

[Michelle McPhee]

But now they had to try to sell the gummies to someone, anyone.

[Sara King]

Cameron never sold one package. And when Cameron gave up, my parents were like, what the fuck are we gonna do with all this now plenty.

[Michelle McPhee]

Of boomers are very into the weed gummy lifestyle. But Sara's parents weren't in on the industry. Their style consisted of a very different kind of high life. They wined and dined, they golfed. I mean, they lived on the grounds of a country club. So they tried to become dealers to the people they knew best.

[Sara King]

They went to their friends. They're all golfers, right? All their friends are golfers. So they started handing out gummies to them, hoping they would buy it. But, you know, nothing ever happened.

[Michelle McPhee]

Meanwhile, the Noble One team was hard at work. They needed to outfit the grow house, buy equipment.

[Sara King]

It was a failure. I say it was a failure, but it was a great idea on paper. But me as a woman heading it, I mean, I met with everyone I possibly could and I failed. I failed getting the funding too.

[Michelle McPhee]

Sara said she was heading Noble 1, but paperwork filed with the California Secretary of State lists two other managers, both men, and neither of them Cameron. Sara did what any reasonable person would do in her position. She started trying to cut her losses and sell the buildings. But this was Covid and two industrial warehouses just weren't selling. And meanwhile, Sahra was hemorrhaging money.

[Sara King]

Cameron really let me down there because he doesn't know when you collateralize properties on your personal properties, it's. It's dangerous. And I did it just to prove that I love him. And he told me to let it all go. And I couldn't because it's my. My parents lived in this home that it was collateralized on and they had no idea that I did that.

[Michelle McPhee]

Sara was in an impossible mind. She was stuck with two buildings. She had no way of Paying for the business that should have helped pay for the property was a steaming sack of gummy bears. And if she didn't pay up, her parents would lose their house. And for a lot of people losing around a million dollars, having to visit a loan shark to get some cash, well, maybe that would scare them. For some, they might retreat, lick their wounds, get into business that was a little less risky. But that's not sorrow.

[Sara King]

It's a real sickening thing. Actually, I'm very lucky, like to the sickening point, like the last second everything comes together.

[Michelle McPhee]

Sarah sees herself as sickeningly lucky. The world is always working out in her favor. So after losing all that money with Brian Quinn, when she had to leverage her parents house, Sara wasn't discouraged. She was inspired by the loan sharks business model.

[Sara King]

He gave me the money for it and he said, I want you to get a license so that we can do business together. Because he knew I had something. So I said okay. So that's when I applied for my license.

[Michelle McPhee]

And this was the moment when Sarah goes from investing to becoming a hard money lender. Someone who preys on the desperate. One of the big boys. And lucky for her, Sara already knew a lot of people Brian Quinn had worked with.

[Sara King]

I learned about all of his clients because he always introduced me to everybody. I didn't take over his company, but I did have my own office right next to his of my own company. And he encouraged me to do it as well.

[Michelle McPhee]

She set up shop with a new name, King Family Lending.

[Sara King]

So King Family Lending, I had to because Cameron was supposed to take care of all the cannabis business, right? I set him up with everybody. I paid for everything and he couldn't make it work.

[Michelle McPhee]

Plus, by now Brian Quinn was busted by the SEC and out of the hard money lending game. So she could pick up right where he left off. Sara was desperate for an infusion of cash and she knew she had to work her contacts. That field of wealthy and well connected people she'd been cultivating for the past few years. First stop was a friend she met at a political group, A woman by the name of Manna Kadar. Because for Sarah, friendship isn't just trading war stories and drinking. When you have to get big investments from rich people to stay afloat. Friendship is a resource and Sara's going to frack it up.

[Jesse Tyler Ferguson]

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[Michelle McPhee]

Manna is the CEO of a constellation of beauty brands including Manna Kadar Beauty Goddess by Manna Kadar Hot Dog that's H A U T E and Manna Kadar Luxe Bath and Beauty. Come to five below with us to.

[Jesse Tyler Ferguson]

Shop our value Lime Goddess by Manna Kadar.

[Michelle McPhee]

She's a serial entrepreneur, a self made beauty mogul. You can imagine why Mana and Sarah might have become friends. They've both got that unironic girl boss energy, but their friendship wouldn't last.

[Sara King]

I had full intention of paying Mana back. I would never hurt her. She was really kind to me.

[Michelle McPhee]

Sara said that before Manna lent her money, she lent manna money 100k for her business. We reached out repeatedly to Manna Kadar and her lawyer to speak with them, but they declined our multiple offers. For her part, Sarah hasn't coughed up any paperwork to show that she lent Mana 100k either. With that in mind, this is what Sara says happened.

[Sara King]

She handed me a plastic baggie full of like four diamond rings and a diamond bracelet and said this should be enough to cover the hundred thousand dollar loan. And I said no it's fucking not. You have to have double the collateral for me to give you the loan. But because she was my friend, I gave her the loan and she ended up paying back just fine.

[Michelle McPhee]

But when Mana lends Sarah money, it turned into a total mess and Mana ended up filing a lawsuit against her former friend. According to the lawsuit, Sara first approached Mana in April 2020 requesting a short term 60 day loan of 25K. Sahra said that she was having trouble because of all The BS with the marijuana business, but claimed that she had other money coming through and would have no trouble repaying. To secure the loan, she handed Manna a fancy Swiss watch with a brand name that's hard to pronounce. Audemars pigeon.

[Jesse Tyler Ferguson]

It took a lot of time for.

[Sara King]

The artisans to finish them by hand, which brought the watch to be a steel watch that was costing more than a golden example.

[Michelle McPhee]

Now, as you may or may not be aware, watches are big. There's a whole underworld of crime tourism where people visit big money areas like the OC Specifically to steal watches off the wrists of the well heeled. So Sara's far from the only one using a watch as a hard asset. And this timepiece was supposedly worth 50,000. Sara and Manna just call it the AP watch.

[Sara King]

I borrowed $25,000 from her, and I had a AP watch that was worth it, so it wasn't a problem.

[Michelle McPhee]

We chatted through the details of the lawsuit with Derrick Lewis. Remember, he's the lawyer and realtor from the OC you got to assume that.

[Jesse Tyler Ferguson]

Sarah King is an excellent saleswoman. She must know what to say, when to say it, how to say it, and people believe her.

[Michelle McPhee]

Sara was a lawyer, a realtor dressed in head to toe Chanel. She had a lending license, and they socialized in the same circles. Why wouldn't Manna trust her?

[Sara King]

I can sell anything. I can sell fire to the devil. I promise you that.

[Michelle McPhee]

According to the lawsuit, even though Sahra didn't pay back the original loan, she asked Mana for an additional 37K. And she showed Manna a picture of a Lamborghini that she said would be collateral for the second loan. When we talk about collateral in this story, it feels big and technical, but the idea is simple. If you don't pay up, the person doing the lending gets to keep or sell whatever you've used as collateral.

[Jesse Tyler Ferguson]

I mean, you're really talking about, you know, Sarah King operating as a pawn shop. You know, she's going and giving people, you know, watches and pictures of cars, saying, give me money and I'll pay you back, girl, so you can have this.

[Michelle McPhee]

So if the collateral is an AP watch and the loan goes unpaid, yeah, technically it's yours. And a Lamborghini, you've got a new set of wheels in between a 50k watch and a Lambo. You will never be late to anything ever again. So congrats on that. But to do this with all the paperwork in order, that's a lot more complicated.

[Jesse Tyler Ferguson]

Yeah, that's a picture of a Lamborghini. But what does title look like? Even myself, I'm like, I wouldn't even know how to go out and properly find whether a watch or a car was collateralized already or already had loans against it. I wouldn't know. I wouldn't know how to get to it. How would I seize it, how would I execute a sheriff's sale against a Lamborghini?

[Michelle McPhee]

And Sara definitely wasn't checking all the boxes.

[Sara King]

A lot of the collateral was just in my office in a safe. I did not take good care of collateral. That is 100% true. But every, you know, it was safe anyways. A lot of people had cars. A lot of people had boats. So if it was a car, I'm supposed to take the car and take the title. But I never took the car, right? I just took the title.

[Michelle McPhee]

And here's the thing. The paperwork Manassigned didn't even mention a Lamborghini. Maybe Sarah was sloppy, scatterbrained. Or maybe Sahra knew exactly what she was doing. Regardless, Mana signed on the dotted line. And according to her lawsuit, Mana gave Sahra more money with a promise of a high rate of interest. Sahra acknowledged that she'd been having some trouble repaying. Sara asked Mana for the AP watch so she could sell it and repay her debt, and Mana trusted that. So she handed over the watch. But selling the watch was not what Sara had planned at all.

[Sara King]

Brian Quinn needed that watch all of a sudden because he owed all these people money. I had no money. So I said, well, Mana has my watch, and he gave me a fake one to give to her in exchange.

[Michelle McPhee]

And it's worth pointing out, Sara is playing hot potato with the blame. But she told us she knew she was giving Miena a fake watch.

[Sara King]

In my opinion, like, I always intended on paying her. So it wasn't like the biggest deal.

[Michelle McPhee]

Mihana took the fake watch to a jeweler to have it appraised.

[Sara King]

She found out it was fake and she flipped her noodle and she's, you know, threatening me, suing me. And I said, look, it's not my fault. I don't want to say it's not my fault, because it is. I agreed with Brian. Let's go ahead and do this. So, yeah, I fucked up there, but I knew I was always going to pay her.

[Michelle McPhee]

I don't know if I need to point this out, but securing a loan with a counterfeit watch is still considered fraud, a criminal offense. It didn't matter that Sara said that she always intended to repay the loan.

[Sara King]

All of a sudden, her lawyers are coming at me and whatnot. And I said, whatever it's cost Manna to make this lawsuit happen, whatever she thinks I owe her, I'll pay it.

[Michelle McPhee]

This lawsuit settled out of court. So it does seem like Sahra paid up. No convictions on Sahra's record for this one. She got to keep all of her licenses. And King Family lending never came under scrutiny. I think Sahra would want me to believe that this was just some misunderstanding between friends, but the way I see it, it could also be something else, a warning sign. The lawsuit laid out her M.O. the strategy she'd used to swindle other people aftim she'd go on a charm offensive on the front end, blame other people for losing her money, and then delay, delay and make excuses on the back end. And I would soon see Sarah could be chilling. She could lie straight to someone's face and have little remorse. This was just the first in a series of lawsuits that would grind Sara's hustle to a halt. Not repaying a loan using fake collateral, backstepping. I'm sensing a pattern. Does it seem natural that she went from being a lawyer like yourself, who specialized in real estate to becoming a self described fixer who took care of people's problems? And then she gets into hard money lending.

[Jesse Tyler Ferguson]

You know, these things, I think, tend to snowball. And when I see hard money lenders, that's usually the progression. It's initially they just broker loans. They. They have a homeowner that gets a loan from Wells Fargo and I get a commission. Then they start going, well, if I could get an investor, I wouldn't need Wells Fargo. And then they start going, man, if it was my own money, I could have that entire amount and then I could sell the whole loan to somebody. And then they start going, well, I don't even need a borrower anymore. I'll just tell people I have borrowers and they'll give me money.

[Michelle McPhee]

This was the path that Sarah was on. She was still desperate for money because of the marijuana buildings. And she was scouting for investors for the lending business, just like Brian Quinn in his luxury asset lending. Now, Sara was the one promising grand returns to investors who wanted to take a chance on her. She met with one of her first investors at a rockstar hangout, the Sunset Marquee in West Hollywood. She gave him the pitch, but all the details sounded really back of the napkin.

[Sara King]

He said, what do you do? Do you just. Do you do deals on a chalkboard downstairs in the basement?

[Michelle McPhee]

And Sara answered with pure bravado.

[Sara King]

So I said, yeah, I do, actually. So do you want to be involved? And he goes, okay, Lady Mafia. And he did, alone. And it went great.

[Michelle McPhee]

Sarah was the most beautiful shit talker and it worked. People were dazzled and actually bought her line. And for Sara, people thinking she was some kind of mafioso was a huge compliment. It meant people respected her. It meant that people would kiss the ring and that people would fall in line. Did you like it? Was there a part of you that was like, well, that's appropriate. This is exactly how I see myself.

[Sara King]

Love, love that whole thing because I'm totally all about the mafia. I love everything Mafia. I love every movie. Mafia, everything. I've always been fascinated with mafia because I love the power moves. I've always tried to be the girl who sits at the guide table.

[Michelle McPhee]

Sara has become Lady Mafia and her transformation from Lara Binding, OC lawyer to woman on the edge was complete. Next time on Lady Mafia.

[Jesse Tyler Ferguson]

It's a disaster. Pardon my French, but you know, is what it is.

[Michelle McPhee]

Don't want to wait for that next episode. You don't have to unlock all episodes of Lady Mafia ad free right now by subscribing to the Binge Podcast channel. Search for the binge on Apple Podcasts and hit subscribe at the top of the page not on apple. Head to getthebinge.com to get access wherever you listen. As a subscriber, you'll get binge access to new stories on the 1st of every month. Check out the Binge channel page on apple podcasts or getthebinge.com to learn more. Lady Mafia is an original production of Sony Music Entertainment. It was hosted and reported by me, Michelle McPhee. Odelia Rubin is our lead producer and wrote this episode with a little help from me. Catherine St. Louis is our story editor. Shara Morris and Jonathan Hirsch are our executive producers. Sound design and mixing by Scott Somerville. Theme and original music composed by Hans Dale Shee. We also use music from Epidemic Sound, Blue Dot Sessions and apm. Our associate producer is Zoe Kulkin. Our fact checker is Fendal Fulton. Our production manager is Tameka Valens Kolasny. Special thanks to Steve Ackerman, Emily Rossick, Jamie Myers, Allie Kildz, Ian Corey Cesnik, who was the voice of Cameron Pahlavi in this episode.