WASHINGTON (AP) — Authorities have arrested a Missouri woman accused of orchestrating a brazen scheme to defraud Elvis Presley’s family of $20,000. auction attempt His Graceland mansion and estate before the judge Stop the mysterious mortgage saleThe Justice Department said on Friday:
Lisa Janine Findley, 53, of Kimberling, falsely claimed that Presley’s daughter borrowed $3.8 million from a fictitious private lender and pledged Graceland as collateral for the loan before She died last year.Prosecutors said she then threatened to sell Graceland to the highest bidder if the Presley family did not pay a $2.85 million settlement, according to authorities.
Prosecutors said Finley impersonated three different people he claimed were involved with the fake lender, forged loan documents and published a fraudulent foreclosure notice in a Memphis newspaper advertising the Graceland auction in May. A judge halted the sale after Presley’s granddaughter filed a lawsuit.
Experts have been baffled. By trying to sell one of the country’s most prestigious properties using names, emails and documents that were quickly suspected to be fake.
Graceland opened as a museum and tourist attraction in 1982 and attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. Elvis Presley Enterprises owns a large entertainment complex inspired by Presley’s life across the street from the museum. The charges were announced on the 47th anniversary of Presley’s death at age 42.
“Ms. Findley allegedly used the very public and tragic events in the Presley family as an opportunity to prey on the name and financial standing of the heirs of Graceland Estate, and to attempt to steal what rightfully belongs to the Presley family for her own personal gain,” said Eric Shinn, Inspector-in-Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s Criminal Investigations Group.
Associated Press reporter Jackie Quinn reported that a person was arrested in an attempt to steal ownership of Elvis Presley’s Graceland estate.
Findley’s attorney, who used multiple aliases, was not named in court documents. A voicemail sent to a phone number believed to be associated with Findley was not immediately returned, nor was an email sent to an address prosecutors say she used in the scheme.
She was charged with mail fraud and aggravated identity theft, which carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison. She remained in custody after a brief appearance in federal court in Missouri, according to court papers.
In May, a public announcement for the sale of the 13-acre (5-hectare) property said that Promenade Trust, which controls Graceland, owed $3.8 million after failing to repay a loan in 2018. Riley QPresley’s granddaughter and actress inherited the trust and ownership of the house after her mother’s death, Lisa Marie PresleyQ’s attorney did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment on Friday.
Q filed a lawsuit alleging fraud, and the judge suspended the case. Proposed Auction With a court order. Naussany Investments and Private Lending — the shell lender that authorities now say Findlay set up — said Lisa Marie Presley used Graceland as collateral for the loan, according to the mortgage sale notice. Q’s lawsuit alleges that Naussany filed fraudulent documents on the loan in September 2023 and that Lisa Marie Presley never borrowed money from Naussany.
Kimberly Philbrick, the notary public named in Nosani’s documents, said she had never met Lisa Marie Presley or notarized any documents for her, according to the estate’s lawsuit. The judge said the notary’s statement raised questions about “the authenticity of the signature.”
Last May, a judge halted the sale of the beloved Memphis landmark, saying Elvis Presley’s estate could prove that the auction company’s attempt to sell Graceland was fraudulent.
Tennessee Attorney General’s Office He was achieving The Graceland controversy, then. Confirmed in June She turned the investigation over to federal authorities.
Nosani will not proceed because a key document in the case and the loan were registered and obtained in another state, meaning “a lawsuit would have to be filed in multiple states,” the statement, sent via email to The Associated Press after the judge halted the sale, said. The statement, sent from an email address listed in court documents, did not specify which state.
After the plan failed, Findley tried to make it appear that the person responsible was a Nigerian identity thief, prosecutors said. In a May 25 email to The Associated Press from the same email address used in the earlier statement, it said in Spanish that the mortgage attempt was carried out by a Nigerian fraud ring that targets the elderly and dead in the United States and uses the Internet to steal money.
_____
Mattis sent this report from Nashville, Tennessee.
