Priscilla Presley sues former associates, alleging elder abuse and financial fraud

Priscilla Presley is accusing her former business associates of financial elder abuse.

Lawyers for Presley, 79, filed a complaint in Los Angeles County Superior Court Thursday, alleging the people behind an LLC established in her name "fraudulently" coerced her into "giving them power of attorney, control over her family and personal trusts and control over her bank accounts" over two years.

In a filing obtained by USA TODAY, she claims the managers of Priscilla Presley Partners, LLC, worked with others to misappropriate more than $1 million of her funds.

The actress, author and ex-wife of Elvis Presley accuses her former associates, auction house founder Brigitte Kruse and Kevin Fialko, of conspiring to "prey on an older woman by gaining her trust, isolating her from the most important people in her life, and duping her into believing that they would take care of her (personally and financially), while their real goal was to drain her of every last penny she had," per the lawsuit.

The filing alleges that the defendants commandeered Presley's control over her finances, "forcing her into a form of indentured servitude, where Plaintiff was forced to work so that they could receive the lion’s share of any revenue that she was able to earn in the future."

Presley asks the court to bar the defendants from accessing her finances and require them to provide full documentation of payments. She seeks $1 million in damages.

In response to a request for comment, Kruse and her legal team said in a statement: "We cannot respond because counsel has not been served with a copy of the lawsuit. We have alerted Ms. Presley’s attorneys that we do not have a copy of this filing but they have not responded."

A representative for Presley's lawyer, Marty Singer, said the office is sending court documents to the defendant via a process server, or a person who delivers filings to individuals who are summoned to appear in court, as the defense lawyer allegedly did not accept service.

USA TODAY has reached out to a contact for Fialko for comment.

Former business associates previously sued Priscilla Presley for breach of contract

Presley claims in her lawsuit that she severed business relations with Kruse in August 2023. In October 2023, Priscilla Presley Partners, LLC sued Presley in Florida for $50,000 in damages for breach of contract.

In the filing, reviewed by USA TODAY July 18, Kruse and Fialko claimed they accepted Presley's request to manage her business and personal affairs in 2022 "despite the hardship that it imposed on their respective ongoing businesses." They saved Presley from dire financial circumstances, the duo said, by establishing the company to "commercially exploit Presley's name, image, and likeness (NIL)."

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But Presley breached their contract by cutting the LLC out of business deals – including excluding Kruse and Fialo from the "Priscilla" premiere at the Venice Film Festival and NBC's " Christmas at Graceland " TV special – in August 2023, the lawsuit alleges.

Presley's complaint references the legal proceedings in Florida, too.

Presley's filing reads, "When it became clear to the defendants that their scheme had been uncovered, they attempted to falsely portray themselves as the victims by filing a lawsuit against Presley in Florida in the name of several of the sham companies they established, alleging that Presley breached the fraudulently-induced operating agreements for the entities defendants established and the sham, unenforceable name, image, and likeness license agreement, and that she breached fiduciary duties she allegedly owed to those entities."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Priscilla Presley sues former associates, alleging elder abuse and financial fraud