Boy, do I love me a good fraud story. (And this is a pretty good fraud story.)

I'll admit it, I'm completely intrigued by con artists, grifters, and embezzlers. We, of course, only hear about the con artists, grifters, and embezzlers who get caught. Just imagine the hordes who get away with it. Because, of course, if everyone who's doing it, doing it, doing it, was getting caught, eventually con artists, grifters, and embezzlers would figure it out and (presumably) find a new way to make a living. The mind boggles at the idea of all those Nigerian princes and nebbishy bookkeepers who get away with it. Stupefying.

And then there are the ones who get caught. As in an LA lawyer named Sara Jacqueline King.

Rather than make her coin the way regular lawyers do - with lotsa billable hours at exorbitant rates - King set up a firm called King Lending. King Lending was an intermediary, shoveling other people's money that came King Lending's way from an outfit called LDR, a lending company based in the British Virgin Islands. Using King Lending as an agent made it easier for LDR to make loans in the United States. But apparently King wasn't exactly passing the loan moola onto deserving lendees.

Okay, it's not the Caymans, but suspicious minds might wonder about a lender headquartered in the BVI making offshore loans. Just sayin'. Anyway, LDR is suing King.

According to the lawsuit, the company made loans to the attorney’s lending service – which bears her name. Those loans were putatively meant to be lent to third parties. “The purported loans from King Lending to the third-party borrowers were purportedly secured by various forms of collateral, including but not limited to luxury automobiles, boats, yachts, jewelry, watches, precious metal coins, and the earnings from guaranteed professional sports contracts.”

In reality, the lawsuit says, no such collateral had been put up. And there were allegedly never any third-party borrowers at all. (Source: Law and Crime)

Instead, King allegedly used the money to party hearty in Las Vegas, where she reportedly gambled up a 24/7 storm. She now claims that all she has to her name is $11.98, and that she'd like LDR to stake her to more money so she can win back some of the money she owes them. Which is over $10M.

Talk about crazy gambling mentality. (I can win it back. Promise. Pinky swear.) Which is I guess how she lost the $10M to begin with. And she sure doesn't lack for chutzpah asking for more chips to play with. 

One of the tricks King used to perpetrate her fraud was sending pictures of herself living the high life, implying that she was a successful attorney with friends in high celebrity places.  As in this picture snapped of King poseuring with star NFL quarterbacks Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes, and Josh Allen at a summer celeb golf event that King apparently weaseled her way into. 

As for the collateral that King put up to secure the loans she conned LDR out of, it included a "collectible comic book valued at $25,000."

Other items allegedly made up by King included a $400,000 Tiara F44 yacht, and a $450,000 1961 Aston Martin. Lawyers said King has never been in possession of those things.

Additionally, the lawsuit states that several of the 97 loans were to be backed by guaranteed contracts garnered from professional athletes - hailing from high-profile leagues leagues such as the NFL, MLB, NHL, and MLS. (Source: Daily Mail)

These contracts, of course, were as made up as the yacht and the Ashton Martin. And how ludicrous for King to send - and for LDR to rely on in any way, shape, or form - pictures of her standing with a bunch of athletes as proof of her connections. There's a word for LDR, and I believe it's sucker. 

Somewhere around here, I have a picture of me with Hall of Famer Red Sox great Carlton Fisk. I know that Fisk is no Tom Brady, but I still might have been able to use it as proof that I rub shoulders with big-time athletes. I might have been able to parlay it into something. I could have been a fraud contender. That is, if I were interested in being a con artist, grifter, or fraudster. There's always a catch!