Three months after Graceland was saved from auction, officials say they have arrested the woman behind the scheme to defraud the heirs of Elvis Presley’s estate. Federal prosecutors say a 53-year-old woman named Lisa Jeanine Findley behind the plot to steal the Presley family’s famous mansion, using the sudden death of the music icon’s daughter to undermine his family’s real estate holdings in Tennessee.
Through a written statement, the Head of the Criminal Division of the Ministry of Justice Nicole M. Argentieri said that Findley, who allegedly used various names including Lisa Holden, Lisa Howell, Gregory Naussany, Kurt Naussany, Lisa Jeanine Sullins and Carolyn Williams, “directed a scheme to effect a fraudulent sale of Graceland, falsely claiming that Elvis Presley’s daughter had mortgaged the historic site as collateral for a loan she failed to repay before her death”.
Argentieri was referring to a bizarre story that broke in May, when a company called Naussany Investments & Private Lending (NIPL) claimed that Lisa Marie Presley, who died in early 2023 at age 54, had borrowed $3.8 million from the company in 2015, using the title to Graceland as collateral. Citing the unpaid debt, NIPL announced a foreclosure auction of the home, sending shockwaves around the world.
Immediately after the auction was advertised, the actor Riley KeoughElvis’ granddaughter and trustee of the estate, filed a 61-page lawsuit arguing that the documents NIPL used to support its claim were forged. The court agreed and blocked the sale; in a follow-up message to Daily mailA representative for NIPL said they would withdraw “any prejudicial claims.”
The Washington Post reports that a person identifying himself as Kurt Naussany first contacted Keough’s legal team on July 14, 2023, using an email address—[email protected]—that FBI agents Christopher Townsend said had been created earlier that day. In the email, Naussany threatened to seize Graceland if he did not receive a response within 10 days. When asked for more information about the alleged loan, Naussany responded with a document that Townsend later determined was a forgery. According to the DOJ, Naussany demanded a payment of $2.85 million to settle the debt. (Vanity Fair Keogh’s representatives have been contacted for comment, but have not yet received a response as of publication time.)
After Keough refused to comply with “Naussany’s” demands, he filed a debt collection action in Los Angeles and proceeded to foreclose on the property the following year. When Keough’s lawsuit prevented the foreclosure, public attention turned to the person behind NIPL, a company with little public presence in the states where it claimed to operate. An identity thief claiming to be based in Nigeria suggested to New York Times that his “network of ‘worms'” was behind the scam, while CNN reported that someone using a language mainly spoken by Ugandans had contacted them to claim responsibility.
But according to a June report by NBC, the prime suspect is believed to be Findley, a grandmother in Branson, Missouri “with a decades-long criminal record for romance scams, check forgery and bank fraud totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars, which landed her in state and federal prison.”
According to NBC, which said it discovered Findlay through email accounts used to post “negative reviews of people and businesses she didn’t like,” a former roommate of Findlay’s went to the FBI after Findlay allegedly described the scam in detail, claiming she “would get a few million dollars.”
When contacted by NBC, Findlay denied any connection to the Graceland case and sent a cease and desist letter to the reporter. Zadrozny BrandyBut according to the Justice Department, which arrested Findlay on Friday, Findley was actually behind the scheme, allegedly impersonating at least three different people as she allegedly tried to “extort the Presley family.”
“Findley allegedly forged loan documents in which Findley forged the signatures of Elvis Presley’s daughter and a Florida notary,” the DOJ said in a statement. “Findley then allegedly filed a false creditor’s claim in the Superior Court of California in Los Angeles and a false deed of trust with the Shelby County Register in Memphis. Findley also allegedly published a fraudulent foreclosure notice in The Commercial Appeal, one of Memphis’ daily newspapers, announcing that Naussany Investments planned to auction Graceland to the highest bidder on May 23.”
Prosecutors have filed charges against Findlay that include mail fraud and aggravated identity theft. If convicted of aggravated identity theft, she faces a mandatory minimum sentence of two years in prison. If convicted of mail fraud, she could face up to 20 years in prison.
