A foreclosure notice published in a Tennessee newspaper in May announcing that an unknown investment firm planned to auction Graceland to the highest bidder later that month sent shock waves through Elvis Presley‘s family and the Memphis community where the landmark is located.
It also sparked a criminal investigation into a well-known fraudster, who claimed that Lisa Marie Presley pledged Graceland as collateral for a loan that she failed to repay before her death last year. On Friday, federal prosecutors detailed what they had found: a scheme to extort millions of dollars from the Presley family by orchestrating a fraudulent sale of 14-acre estate.
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Prosecutors allege Lisa Findley posed as various individuals affiliated with Naussany Investments, representing to Riley Keough that her mother in 2018 had borrowed $3.8 million and defaulted on payments. She allegedly threatened to foreclose on the property within 10 days.
According to the criminal complaint, Findley proposed a settlement of $2.85 million to resolve the loan. The alleged plot collapsed when a lawsuit was filed accusing the investment firm of fraud. A court subsequently blocked a foreclosure sale of Graceland and an investigation was kick-started.
“I know that Graceland is a national treasure,” said Kevin G. Ritz, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Tennessee, in a statement. “This defendant allegedly used a brazen scheme to try to defraud the Presley family of their interest in this singularly important landmark.”
Findley, who’s also been known to go by other last names, including Howell, Holden and Sullins, was arrested Friday morning on charges of aggravated identity theft and mail fraud. If convicted, she faces a mandatory minimum of two years in prison and a maximum sentence of 20 years.
A 30-page criminal complaint, filed in federal court in Tennessee, details the alleged fraud spanning multiple states and false identities. Findley fabricated loan documents on which she forged the signatures of Lisa Marie Presley and a notary, the complaint says. She then allegedly filed creditor’s claims in Los Angeles Superior Court and published a foreclosure notice in a Memphis newspaper announcing an auction of Graceland, among other fraudulently prepared documents.
“We are now prepared to Foreclose on secured property Graceland and hold Public Auction in 20 (twenty) days,” Findley, representing herself as Naussany Investments owner Kurt Naussany, wrote in an email to Keough’s lawyers in April. “We have tried relentlessly reaching out and no cooperation.”
A month later, Findley, this time representing herself as lawyer Carolyn Williams, sent another message stating that it was prepared to hold the auction if the settlement offer wasn’t accepted. “Bidding takes place May 23, 2024 from 10 am to 12 pm to highest bidder,” the complaint says she stated in an email.
And when the fake investment firm was sued in Tennessee state court to stop the sale of the estate, Findley wrote to representatives for Presley’s family and the media denying involvement in the alleged scheme while blaming Naussany, her other fake identity, prosecutors allege.
“I myself did not do the loan, although I have known [Lisa Marie Presley] for many years,” she wrote, representing herself as Williams. “I believe Greg Naussany did the loan process. Greg and I are no longer partnered together. I have ventured out, [s]o whoever is filing paperwork may need to look at documents again.”
Prosecutors say Naussany then represented that the person responsible for the scheme was an identity thief in Nigeria.
Findley is slated to make her first court appearance on Friday to enter a plea.
