A woman was arrested on Friday for an alleged scheme to steal the late Elvis Presley’s estate known as Graceland, which would have defrauded the Presley family of millions of dollars.
Lisa Jeanine Findley, a 53-year-old from Missouri, was charged with mail fraud and aggravated identity theft after she allegedly tried to get nearly three million dollars from the Presley family by falsely claiming that Presley’s daughter, Lisa Marie Presley—who died in January 2023—pledged Graceland as collateral for an unpaid debt, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) who cited court documents.
Findley allegedly pretended to be three different people from a fake private lender named Naussany Investments & Private Lending LLC (Naussany Investments). She allegedly falsely claimed that Lisa Marie Presley failed to repay a $3.8 million loan she borrowed in 2018 from Naussany Investments before her death and sought $2.85 million from the Presley family to settle the debt.
As part of the alleged scheme, Findley published a fake foreclosure notice in The Commerical Appeal, a Memphis daily newspaper, announcing that Naussany Investments would auction Graceland to the highest bidder last May.
A Tennessee judge halted the sale of the estate after actress Riley Keough, Lisa Marie Presley’s daughter who inherited Graceland, sued Naussany Investments.
Once the alleged scheme caught global media attention, Findley allegedly tried to pin it on an identity thief from Nigeria.
Newsweek reached out to representatives of the Presley family via email for comment on Friday afternoon.
An attorney for Findley was not listed in court documents, according to The Associated Press.
A general view of Graceland as fans gather outside Graceland to pay their respects to Lisa Marie Presley on Jan. 13, 2023, in Memphis, Tennessee. A woman was arrested on Friday for an alleged scheme to steal the late Elvis Presley’s estate known as Graceland, which would have defrauded the Presley family of millions of dollars.
Justin Ford/Getty Images
“As a Memphian, I know that Graceland is a national treasure,” U.S. Attorney Kevin G. Ritz for the Western District of Tennessee said in a statement on Friday.
He continued: “Of course, all homeowners deserve to have their property protected from fraud, and the Department of Justice will vigorously prosecute anyone who commits financial crimes or identity theft.”
Inspector in Charge Eric Shen of U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) Criminal Investigations Group said in a statement on Friday that 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.”
Findley faces a mandatory minimum sentence of two years in prison if convicted of aggravated identity theft and a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison if found guilty of mail fraud.
