A woman has been arrested and charged over a scheme to defraud Elvis Presley’s family of millions of dollars and steal their interest in his iconic Graceland home, authorities said Friday.
Lisa Findley, 53, was also known as Lisa Holden, Lisa Howell, Gregory Naussany, Kurt Naussany, Lisa Jeanine Sullins, and Carolyn Williams, according to the Department of Justice.
Findley allegedly “orchestrated a scheme to conduct a fraudulent sale of Graceland,” falsely claiming that Presley’s daughter pledged the historic landmark as collateral for a loan that “she failed to repay.”
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Presley’s daughter, Lisa Marie, died in January 2023. Since that day, the feds allege Findley led a “brazen scheme” to try and “extort a settlement from the Presley family.”
Findley, a native of Missouri, tried to claim that Lisa Marie borrowed $3.8 million in 2018 and didn’t pay most of the fake loan back, entitling her to $2.85 million from Presley’s family.
Lisa Marie Presley, photographed above in 2015, died of a bowel obstruction on Jan. 12, 2023. She was just 54.
ReutersThe feds said Findley fabricated loan documents that were made to support this claim. The fake documents allegedly included a forged signature from Lisa Marie and revealed Findley created a fake private lending firm called Naussany Investments.
Findley allegedly went as far as publishing a fraudulent foreclosure notice in The Commercial Appeal, Memphis’ largest newspaper. That notice said Naussany Investments planned to auction off Graceland to the highest bidder on May 23.
That auction never went through, however, and Presley’s family sued Naussany in Tennessee state court. Findley allegedly filed false court documents in that case, too.
The feds say Findley, seemingly knowing she’d been caught red-handed, tried to claim that the person responsible for the scheme was a Nigerian identity thief. Federal investigators didn’t buy that story, however, and she’s now staring down a prison sentence of up to 20 years for mail fraud and aggravated identity theft.
An estimated 80,000 fans lined the streets around Graceland in 1977 for Elvis Presley’s funeral.
GettyThe charges were announced on the 47th anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death.
“Fame and money are magnets for criminals who look to capitalize on another person’s celebrity status,” said Eric Shen of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service Criminal Investigations Group in a news release.
“In this case,” he added, “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.”
