A Missouri woman has been arrested on charges she orchestrated a scheme defraud Elvis Presley’s family by trying to auction off his iconic Graceland property before a judge halted the mysterious foreclosure sale, the Justice Department said on Friday.
Lisa Jeanine Findley, 53, of Kimberling City, Missouri, falsely claimed Presley’s daughter pledged the property as collateral for a loan she failed to pay before she died last year, prosecutors said.
She fabricated loan documents and then published a bogus foreclosure notice in a Memphis newspaper announcing that Graceland would be auctioned off to the highest bidder in May, prosecutors said.
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An attorney for Findley, who used multiple aliases, was not listed in court documents and a telephone number was not immediately available in public records. An email seeking comment sent to an address prosecutors say Findley had used in the scheme was not immediately returned.
In May, a public notice for a foreclosure sale of the five-hectare estate said Promenade Trust, which controls the Graceland museum, owes $US3.8 million ($5.72 million) after failing to repay a 2018 loan. Riley Keough, Presley’s granddaughter and an actor, inherited the trust and ownership of the home after the death of her mother, Lisa Marie Presley, last year.
Keough filed a lawsuit claiming fraud, and a judge halted the proposed auction with an injunction.
Naussany Investments and Private Lending said Lisa Marie Presley had used Graceland as collateral for the loan, according to the foreclosure sale notice.
Keough’s lawsuit alleged that Naussany presented fraudulent documents regarding the loan in September 2023 and that Lisa Maria Presley never borrowed money from Naussany.
Kimberly Philbrick, the notary whose name is listed on Naussany’s documents, indicated she never met Lisa Marie Presley nor notarised any documents for her, according to the estate’s lawsuit. Jenkins, the judge, said the notary’s affidavit brings into question “the authenticity of the signature”.
A judge in May halted the foreclosure sale of the beloved Memphis tourist attraction, saying Elvis Presley’s estate could be successful in arguing that a company’s attempt to auction Graceland was fraudulent.
The Tennessee attorney general’s office had been investigating the Graceland controversy, then confirmed in June that it handed the probe over to federal authorities.
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