Woman charged in alleged plan to steal Elvis’s Graceland
A Missouri woman is accused of attempting to defraud Elvis Presley’s family out of millions of dollars and steal their ownership stake in Graceland, the legendary singer’s family home.
Lisa Jeanine Findley, who operated under various aliases, was arrested for allegedly orchestrating a fraudulent scheme to sell Graceland, located in Memphis, Tennessee.
Findley, 53, faces federal charges of mail fraud and aggravated identity theft and is expected to appear in court on Friday. If convicted, she could face a prison sentence of up to 20 years.
The Presley family has not made any public statements regarding the charges.
According to the US Justice Department, Findley posed as three different individuals connected to a fictitious private lender known as Naussany Investments & Private Lending LLC (Naussany Investments).
The DOJ claims she falsely alleged that Lisa Marie Presley, Elvis Presley’s daughter who passed away in January 2023, had borrowed $3.8 million from Naussany Investments, using Graceland as collateral for the loan, and then failed to repay the debt.
Findley was allegedly seeking $2.85 million from the Presley family to settle the fabricated debt, according to the DOJ.
Among the fraudulent actions she’s accused of are allegedly fabricating loan documents, forging the signature of Elvis Presley’s daughter, and publishing a fraudulent foreclosure notice in one of Memphis’s daily newspapers, announcing that Naussany planned to auction Graceland on 23 May.
When the Presley family sued Naussany Investments attempting to stop the sale of Graceland, Ms Findley also allegedly submitted false court filings, the DOJ said.
The auction to sell Graceland sparked international attention earlier this year, after Presley’s granddaughter, actress Riley Keough, claimed that the paperwork on the loan was fraudulent. She said that her mother’s signature was forged.
Ms Keough inherited Graceland, which has long been a public museum honoring Mr Presley, and much of Presley’s estate after her mother, Lisa Marie Presley, died last year.
She filed a legal action to stop the planned auction and a Tennessee judge agreed.
At the time, Graceland and Elvis Presley Enterprises stated to the BBC: “As the court has now made clear, there was no validity to the claims.”
Elvis bought Graceland’s mansion in 1957 and lived there until he died two decades later.
The 14-acre compound was opened to the public as a music history park, in the early 1980s. Now officially a National Historic Landmark, it attracts roughly 600,000 visitors a year, according to the venue.
Elvis died at Graceland and is buried there, as are his parents, daughter Lisa Marie Presley, and her son, Benjamin Keough.
The BBC’s efforts to reach an attorney for Ms Findley were unsuccessful.
