Lisa Jeanine Findley said that Presley’s daughter had borrowed $3.8 million from a private lender using the iconic mansion and its grounds as collateral, The Associated Press reported.
The documents she had were counterfeit and she published a hoax foreclosure notice in a local newspaper saying that the estate would be auctioned off as part of her scheme to extort the family out of $2.85 million to settle, officials said.
The public notice for the estate auction claimed Promenade Trust, the controlling entity for the museum, owed $3.8 million for not repaying a 2018 loan. Actress Riley Keough, Elvis’ granddaughter and the daughter of Lisa Marie Presley owns the home and inherited the trust upon the death of her mother last year.
The head of the Justice Department’s criminal division and Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Nicole Argentieri said Findley “orchestrated a scheme to conduct a fraudulent sale of Graceland, falsely claiming that Elvis Presley’s daughter had pledged the historic landmark as collateral for a loan that she failed to repay before her death. As part of the brazen scheme, we allege that the defendant created numerous false documents and sought to extort a settlement from the Presley family. Now she is facing federal charges. The criminal division and its partners are committed to holding fraudsters to account,” Variety reported.
A judge stopped the action before the home was sold and after Keough filed a lawsuit, saying that Naussany Investments had fraudulent documents showing that her mother had taken out a loan which she did not.
Kimberly Philbrick was listed on the documents as the notary but said she never notarized the documents or met Presley, which brought “the authenticity of the signature” into question.
Findley also used several aliases including Lisa Holden, Lisa Howell, Gregory Naussany, Kurt Naussany, Lisa Jeanine Sullins and Carolyn Williams, Variety reported. The legal filing said that Findley pretended to be three different people who worked for the fake private lending firm — Naussany Investments — to scam the family out of millions of dollars.
“Ms. Findley allegedly took advantage of the very public and tragic occurrences in the Presley family as an opportunity to prey on the name and financial status of the heirs to the Graceland estate, attempting to steal what rightfully belongs to the Presley family for her personal gain,” Eric Shen said, according to the AP . Shen is the inspector in charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service Criminal Investigations Group.
Initially, Tennessee officials were investigating the case, but it was moved to the federal level in June.
A statement to the AP after the sale was stopped claimed Naussany would not pursue the sale because a document was recorded and obtained in a different state, but no state was specified in the statement. If it was true, then the statement went on to say, “legal action would have to be filed in multiple states.”
Another email sent to the AP said that the sale was attempted by a Nigerian fraud ring that zeros in on elderly and dead people in the U.S., using the internet to steal money.
Findley is facing mail fraud and aggravated identity theft charges, Variety reported.
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