2024-08-17 17:05:02
A Missouri woman has been arrested for allegedly attempting to defraud the family of Elvis Presley and steal their ownership interest in Graceland, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday (Aug. 16).
The 53-year-old woman, whose name is Lisa Jeanine Findley but has gone by numerous aliases, has been charged with mail fraud and aggravated identity theft. She faces a maximum of 20 years in prison on the former charge and a mandatory minimum of two years on the latter; she made an initial court appearance in Missouri on Friday.
“As alleged in the complaint, the defendant 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,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s criminal division, in a statement. “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.”
According to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Tennessee on Thursday (Aug. 15), Findley allegedly posed as three different people affiliated with a company called Naussany Investments & Private Lending in claiming that Presley’s daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, had used the famed Memphis mansion as collateral to secure a loan of $3.8 million that she failed to repay. She also allegedly fabricated loan documents and forged the signatures of Lisa Marie and a notary public to file a false creditor’s claim with the Superior Court of California in Los Angeles and a false deed of trust with the Shelby Country Register’s Office in Memphis. The Justice Department also claims that Findley published a fraudulent foreclosure notice in the Memphis daily newspaper The Commercial Appeal announcing that Naussany Investments would auction Graceland on May 23.
The attempted auction was quickly blocked after Presley’s granddaughter and Lisa Marie’s daughter, Riley Keough — who took over as trustee of Promenade Trust, the entity that controls Graceland, following Lisa Marie’s death in January 2023 — won a court order halting it. Shortly thereafter, Findley allegedly wrote to Presley family representatives, the Tennessee state court and the media to falsely claim that the person responsible for the faud was an identity thief based in Nigeria.
“Fame and money are magnets for criminals who look to capitalize on another person’s celebrity status,” said Eric Shen, inspector in charge of U.S. Postal Inspection Service Criminal Investigations Group (USPIS), in a statement. “In this case, 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. Postal Inspectors and their law enforcement partners put an end to her alleged scheme, protecting the Presley family from continued harm and stress.”
