Shortly after Lisa Marie Presley died in January 2023, her family received a strange letter from Naussany Investment and Private Lending, claiming that they would sell Elvis’ Memphis mansion Graceland if the clan didn’t repay a $4 million loan they alleged Lisa Marie had taken out in 2018.
The investment firm claimed Lisa Marie had used the iconic mansion as collateral and published a foreclosure notice in a Memphis newspaper.
Sensing something wasn’t right, Lisa Marie’s eldest daughter, actress and Graceland’s current owner Riley Keough, 35, launched a lawsuit against Naussany Investments in May 2024.
“Lisa Marie never borrowed money from Naussany Investments and never gave a deed of trust to Naussany Investments,” Riley’s lawyer wrote in a statement, which successfully stopped the sale and saved the Presley family from losing Graceland.
Stolen identity
While the former home of the king of rock ’n’ roll was now safe, many questions remained about who was behind the shocking scam – and this is where things got juicy!
An investigation by NBC News traced the fraudulent emails from Naussany Investments all the way to the tiny Missouri home of grandmother Lisa Findley.
When investigators turned up at her door, Findley initially denied creating a false creditor’s claim or a fake deed to Graceland, as well as forging Lisa Marie’s signature.
“I have no earthly idea what you’re talking about,” the 53-year-old grandmother told reporters at the front door of her home in Branson, Missouri.
Instead, she continued the wild narrative, going so far as to claim that her identity had been stolen by scammers in Nigeria!
But eventually her ruse was uncovered and, in an ironic twist, the US Department of Justice charged Findley with identity theft and mail fraud on 16 August 2024, the 47th anniversary of Elvis’ death.
“Ms Findley attempted to steal what rightfully belongs to the Presley family for her personal gain,” announced Eric Shen, who is the US Postal Inspection Service criminal investigations inspector in charge of the case.
“Ms Findley allegedly took advantage of the public, and tragic occurrences in the Presley family, as an opportunity to prey on the name and financial status of the heir to the Graceland estate,” he told the US District Court in Memphis.
The game was up and while she initially pleaded not guilty when arrested, Findley changed her tune and subsequently pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud on 25 February, while one count of aggravated identity theft was dismissed as part of a plea deal.
History of scams
Currently in federal custody, Findley is expected to be charged in June this year.
If the maximum penalty is applied, she could spend 20 years in prison – and since her arrest, her many previous transgressions have also come to light.
From May 2002 to October 2004, Findley was found guilty of falsifying social security numbers, along with $208,000 in fake bank cheques.
A few years later, after serving a prison sentence, the naughty nana was offered a supervised release, but this was revoked after it was found she’d been forging documents, which landed her another 12 months behind bars.
With the home of her famous grandfather, who would have turned 90 this year, now safe once more, mother-of-two Riley is still yet to formally comment on the case. But she remains firmly the sole owner of the mansion Elvis purchased in 1957, which is estimated to be worth between $430 and $550 million.
The 5.6ha property is also where Elvis, Lisa Marie and Elvis’ mother Minnie Mae are buried.
“My hope is to continue what my grandmother Priscilla Presley and then my mother did, which is simply preserve our family home,” says Daisy Jones & The Six star Riley.
“All we want is to love and protect Graceland and the Presley family’s legacy.”
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