A woman who tried to sell off Elvis Presley’s Graceland mansion for millions of dollars in a bizarre scheme has been sentenced to more than four years in prison.
Lisa Jeanine Findley, 54, was ordered Tuesday (Sept. 23) by Judge John T. Fowlkes Jr. to serve four years and nine months over the brazen scam, in which she used a fake company and forged documents to try to conduct a foreclosure sale of the legendary Memphis home.
The outlandish scheme, which befuddled media outlets and officials alike in May 2024, centered on Findley’s false claims that Presley’s daughter Lisa Marie Presley had pledged Graceland as collateral for a loan before her sudden 2023 death.
“Fame and money are magnets for criminals who look to capitalize on another person’s celebrity status,” said Eric Shen of the United States Postal Inspection Service, which investigated the scheme. “Ms. Findley 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.”
Findley pleaded guilty in February to a single charge of mail fraud as part of a plea deal that saw prosecutors drop a charge of aggravated identity theft. In addition to the prison sentence, Judge Fowlkes ordered Findley to serve three years of probation after her release. Her attorney did not immediately return a request for comment on Wednesday (Sept. 24).
When Elvis died in 1977, Lisa Marie inherited his estate, including Graceland — a tourist mecca that pulls in millions a year in revenue. But in early 2024, a mysterious foreclosure notice claimed the mansion would be auctioned off to the highest bidder. It said Lisa Marie, who died suddenly in January 2023, had failed to repay a 2018 loan of $3.8 million — and that she had posted the iconic building as security.
Actress Riley Keough, Lisa Marie’s daughter, who had inherited control of Graceland, quickly filed a lawsuit to stop the sale, claiming the estate had been the victim of a fraud scheme. She argued that her mother had never borrowed the money and that the paperwork surrounding the phony loan was a forgery. Almost immediately, a judge issued an injunction blocking any auction.
Months later, Findley was arrested and charged with orchestrating the entire scam. Prosecutors said she used phony companies (Naussany Investments and Private Lending) and fake names (Kurt Naussany, Lisa Howell and others) and had threatened to go through with the sale unless the estate settled by paying $2.8 million.
The bizarre Graceland dispute was just one of several legal headaches faced by the Presley family in recent years. Following Lisa Marie’s sudden death, her mother, Priscilla Presley, and daughter Keough briefly sparred over her will. Priscilla is also currently locked in an ugly courtroom battle with several former business advisors.
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