Graceland is the former estate of famed rock and roll singer Elvis Presley, pictured here strolling the grounds in 1957. Photo / Getty Images
Graceland is the former estate of famed rock and roll singer Elvis Presley, pictured here strolling the grounds in 1957. Photo / Getty Images
Prosecutors called it a “brazen scheme” to steal a “national treasure”.
On May 19, a 460-word notice appeared in Memphis’ daily newspaper announcing Elvis Presley’s legendary Graceland estate was being foreclosed on - and that four days later, the National Historical Landmark visited by more than 20 million tourists would be sold in front of the county courthouse.
Nearly three months later, prosecutors are alleging a Missouri woman hatched a “brazen scheme” to try to steal Graceland from the King of Rock and Roll’s heirs and threatened to sell it if they didn’t pay millions of dollars.
The prosecutors allege Lisa Jeanine Findley, 53, of Kimberling City, Missouri, posed as multiple employees at a fictitious private moneylender claiming that Elvis’s daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, had borrowed millions of dollars before she died and put up as collateral her father’s iconic 13.8-acre property in Memphis. On Friday, Findley was charged with mail fraud and aggravated identity theft in the US District Court for Western Missouri. If convicted on both charges, she faces two to 22 years in prison.
“Graceland is a national treasure,” Kevin Ritz, US attorney for the Western District of Tennessee, said in a news release. “This defendant allegedly used a brazen scheme to try to defraud the Presley family of their interest in this singularly important landmark.”
Graceland Mansion in Memphis, Elvis' former home-turned-museum.
Findley’s attorney, federal public defender Ian Lewis, did not respond Friday to a request for comment from the Washington Post. The Justice Department declined to comment on the case.
The Graceland mansion was built in 1939. Elvis Presley, looking for seclusion when he was in his early 20s and his star was rising, took over in 1957 for $102,000 - about US$1.1 million ($1.8m) today. He died and was buried there 20 years later at the age of 42.
Graceland opened for tours in 1982, according to the Elvis Presley Trust. In 1991, it was put on the National Register of Historic Places, and in 2006, it was designated a National Historic Landmark. Today, more than 500,000 people visit each year.
As her father’s heir, Lisa Marie Presley maintained sole ownership of the house and its contents. When she died in January of last year, the mansion went to a trust to benefit her three daughters but continued to operate as a tourist attraction.
Six months after Presley’s death, Findley allegedly started her scheme to manipulate bureaucratic levers to steal Graceland.
On July 14, 2023, the email address “naussanyinvestmentsllc@outlook.com” was created, FBI agent Christopher Townsend wrote in an affidavit. That same day, someone claiming to be “Kurt Naussany,” chief lending officer for Naussany Investments and Private Lending, used that address to email lawyers representing Keough, Lisa Marie Presley’s daughter, Townsend said, although he identified Presley and Keough by their initials. Naussany claimed Presley had taken out the loan and defaulted on her debts before she died, the affidavit states.
Naussany threatened to foreclose on Graceland if Keough didn’t respond within 10 days, according to the affidavit. Keough’s lawyers asked for more information about the loan, and on July 28, a package containing a “creditor’s claim” and supporting documentation was mailed from a post office in Kimberling City to Presley’s business manager in Woodland Hills, California, the affidavit states.
The documentation included a “standard promissory note” that supposedly had Lisa Marie Presley’s signature agreeing to borrow $3.8m from Naussany Investments, and a “deed of trust” in which she pledged Graceland as collateral, the affidavit states. Other documents claimed to show Naussany Investments had given Presley the money and then repeatedly told her the company would take legal auction for defaulting, according to the affidavit.
The Missouri woman allegedly posed as multiple employees at a fake private moneylender and claimed Lisa Marie Presley owed the company millions of dollars before she died in January last year, with Graceland listed as collateral. Photo / WireImage
The FBI agent said he had uncovered evidence showing all those documents were fake. The notary whose signatures appear on the promissory note and deed of trust stated under oath that she had never met Lisa Marie Presley or notarised any documents for her, the agent said.
Still, in September, Naussany filed a collections claim in a Los Angeles County court after Keough refused to pay. On May 19, Naussany posted in the Commercial Appeal newspaper a public notice of a foreclosure sale scheduled for May 23. In that notice, Naussany Investments said Graceland would be sold in front of the Shelby County courthouse to “the highest and best bidder for cash”.
Keough sued, asking a judge to block the sale. In the petition, she claimed her mother had never borrowed money from Naussany or given the company a deed of trust for Graceland or any other property. Keough said Naussany was “a false entity” and the documents it was using to support its ownership claim forgeries.
A judge blocked foreclosing on Graceland, and within days, a person calling himself Gregory Naussany reached out to several news outlets claiming to be part of a ring of Nigerian identity thieves responsible for the scheme to steal Graceland, according to NBC News. He wrote in an email that, despite having been thwarted in their attempt to steal and sell Graceland, the identity thieves would continue preying on people with impunity, the news organisation reported.
In the affidavit unsealed on Friday, the FBI agent said multiple pieces of evidence connected to Naussany - aliases, post office boxes, bank accounts, phone numbers and email addresses - tied back to Findley in Kimberling City, Missouri, not overseas.
In June, NBC News was first to report a connection between “Naussany Investments” and Findley.
Findley made her first court appearance on Friday afternoon before Magistrate Judge David Rush in Springfield, Missouri. Rush ordered that she remain in jail and ruled that she be removed to the Western District of Tennessee.
