Woman allegedly planned to blackmail Elvis Presley's family and auction Graceland

Updated: 14 hours ago Published: 15 hours ago

WASHINGTON — A Missouri woman has been arrested on charges she hatched a brazen plan to deceive Elvis Presley's family by attempting to auction off his Graceland mansion and property before a judge halted the mysterious foreclosure, the Justice Department said Friday.

Lisa Jeanine Findley, 53, of Kimberling City, falsely claimed that Presley's daughter borrowed $3.8 million from a fake 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 Presley's family did not pay $2.85 million in compensation, authorities said.

Finley posed as three different people who allegedly had dealings with the bogus lender, forged loan documents and published a fraudulent foreclosure notice in a Memphis newspaper announcing Graceland's auction in May, prosecutors said. A judge halted the sale after Presley's granddaughter sued.

Experts were baffled by an attempt to sell one of the country's most historic properties using names, emails and documents that were quickly suspected of being fake.

Graceland opened as a museum and tourist attraction in 1982 and draws hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. Across the street from the museum is a large Presley-themed entertainment complex owned by Elvis Presley Enterprises. The announcement of the charges came on the 47th anniversary of Presley's death at age 42.

“Ms. Findley allegedly took advantage of the very public and tragic events in the Presley family to exploit the name and financial situation of the heirs to the Graceland estate and to attempt to steal what rightfully belongs to the Presley family for her personal gain,” said Eric Shen, inspector in charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service's Criminal Investigations Group.

An attorney for Findley, who used several aliases, was not listed in court documents. A voicemail with a phone number believed to be associated with Findley was not immediately returned, nor was an email to an address prosecutors said she used in the plot.

She is accused of mail fraud and aggravated identity theft. Mail fraud is punishable by up to 20 years in prison. After a brief appearance in federal court in Missouri, she remained in custody, court records show.

In May, a public notice for a foreclosure auction of the 5-acre estate said the Promenade Trust, which controls the Graceland museum, owes $3.8 million because it failed to repay a 2018 loan. Riley Keough, Presley's granddaughter and actress, inherited the trust and ownership of the home after the death of her mother, Lisa Marie Presley, last year. An attorney for Keough did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.

Keough filed a fraud lawsuit, and a judge halted the planned auction with a temporary restraining order. Naussany Investments and Private Lending – the sham lender that authorities say Findley now created – said Lisa Marie Presley used Graceland as collateral for the loan, the notice of the forced sale said. Keough's lawsuit claimed Naussany submitted falsified 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, said she never met Lisa Marie Presley nor did she notarize any documents for her, according to the estate's lawsuit. The judge said the notary's affidavit called into question “the authenticity of the signature.”

In May, the judge stopped the foreclosure of the popular Memphis tourist attraction, saying Elvis Presley's heirs could succeed in arguing that a company's attempt to auction Graceland was fraudulent.

The Tennessee Attorney General's Office investigated the Graceland case and confirmed in June that it had turned the investigation over to federal authorities.

In an email to the Associated Press after the judge halted the sale, Naussany said he would not proceed with the sale because a key document in the case and the loan were registered and obtained in another state, meaning “action would have to be brought in multiple states.” The statement, sent from an email address listed in court documents, did not identify the other state.

After the plot failed, Findley tried to make it look like the person responsible was a Nigerian identity thief, prosecutors said. An email sent to the AP on May 25, from the same email as the earlier statement, said in Spanish that the foreclosure attempt was carried out by a Nigerian fraud ring that targets the elderly and dead in the U.S. and uses the Internet to steal money.

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Mattise reported from Nashville, Tennessee.