WASHINGTON– A Missouri woman has been arrested on suspicion of orchestrating a scheme to defraud the family of Elvis Presley by attempting to auction off his iconic Graceland estate before a judge halted the mysterious foreclosure, the Justice Department said Friday.
Lisa Jeanine Findley, 53, of Kimberling City, Missouri, falsely claimed that Presley’s daughter had pledged the property as collateral for a loan she was unable to repay before her death last year, prosecutors said. She forged loan documents and then published a fake foreclosure notice in a Memphis newspaper announcing that Graceland would be auctioned off to the highest bidder in May, prosecutors said.
An attorney for Findley, who used several aliases, was not listed in court documents and a phone number was not immediately available in public records. An email seeking comment to an address prosecutors said Findley used in the plot was not immediately returned.
In May, a public notice about the foreclosure of the 12-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.
Keough filed a fraud lawsuit, and a judge halted the planned auction with a temporary restraining order. Naussany Investments and Private Lending said Lisa Marie Presley used Graceland as collateral for the loan, the notice of the forced sale said. Keough’s lawsuit alleged that 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 or notarized any documents for her, according to the estate’s lawsuit. Judge Jenkins said the notary’s affidavit calls into question “the authenticity of the signature.”
In May, a judge halted the foreclosure of the popular Memphis tourist attraction, saying Elvis Presley’s heirs could succeed by 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.
