Tacoma woman who conned friends and associates out of $600,000 pleads guilty to wire fraud

For six years, Sabrina Taylor talked people into giving her money: for her college tuition, for her multiple sclerosis meds, for her brother’s bail. She would pay it back, she said. She had money coming in.

She lied. She wasn’t paying tuition at the University of Washington. She didn’t have MS, or a brother in jail. The $600,000 she bilked from friends and people she met online paid for airline tickets, clothes, and makeup.

Taylor, a 40-year-old Tacoma resident, pleaded guilty Friday to one count of wire fraud in U.S. District Court in Seattle, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

From 2013 to 2019, Taylor borrowed money from acquaintances and people in online forums, federal prosecutors found. She admitted stealing $550,000 from a single victim. She falsely promised she could repay the stolen money with her paychecks, with money from a pending legal settlement, with money from her parents.

Prosecutors recommended no more than 27 months in prison for Taylor. Chief U.S. District Judge Ricardo Martinez, not bound by the recommendation, could impose up to 20 years. Taylor’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for Oct. 7.

This story was originally published July 1, 2022 at 2:21 PM.