Woman Charged in Scheme to Sell Graceland, Defraud Elvis Presley Family
Months after a judge stopped the foreclosure sale of Elvis Presley’s Graceland estate amid allegations of fraud, authorities have arrested the woman they say allegedly conned Presley’s family. Federal authorities arrested 53-year-old Lisa Jeanine Findley, who is also known by many aliases, including Lisa Holden, in Kimberling City, Missouri, on Friday morning.
Findley faces charges of mail fraud and aggravated identity theft. If convicted, she could serve a maximum of 20 years in prison for the former charge and a minimum of two for the latter. She’ll make an appearance Friday at the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri to answer the feds’ criminal complaint.
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The U.S. Department of Justice accused Findley of orchestrating “an alleged scheme to defraud Elvis Presley’s family of millions of dollars and steal the family’s ownership interest in Graceland.” Presley’s granddaughter, Riley Keough, inherited the estate after a fraught battle with her grandmother, Priscilla. Keough alerted a judge in May to the alleged plot, claiming that Findley’s Naussany Investments and Private Lending LLC had placed a lien on the estate under the pretense that the late Lisa Marie Presley (Keough’s mother) had used it as collateral for a $3.8 million loan. Findley’s name, under the Lisa Holden alias, became public a month later following an NBC News investigation.
“As part of the brazen scheme, we allege that the defendant created numerous false documents and sought to extort a settlement from the Presley family,” Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, said in a statement. “Now she is facing federal charges. The Criminal Division and its partners are committed to holding fraudsters to account.”
A rep for Keough did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone’s request for comment.
The feds claim Findley used three different aliases under the Naussany Investments guise to create a ruse that suggested Lisa Marie borrowed millions from the dubious company in 2018 and defaulted on the loan. With the falsified loan document, which feds claim bore forged signatures by Lisa Marie and a Florida notary public, Findley then allegedly sought $2.85 million from the Presley Estate.
The feds say she bolstered these claims with a fake creditor’s claim filed in Los Angeles and a forged deed of trust filed in Memphis. She also allegedly posted a notice of foreclosure in the Memphis newspaper, The Commercial Appeal. An auction was set to take place on May 23. The DOJ accuses Findley further of submitting false court filings after the Presley estate sued her and blamed her alleged actions on a Nigerian identity thief.
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the FBI Memphis Field Office are investigating the case. The FBI Kansas City Field Office is helping.
When NBC News tracked down Findley in June, she claimed that she had been a victim of identity theft. She said she had “no earthly idea” what the reporter was alleging and subsequently filed a cease-and-desist order against the network.
Presley purchased the Graceland estate, which was built in 1900, for $102,500 in 1957. He died in the mansion, which opened its doors as a tourist attraction in the early Eighties, on Aug. 16, 1977 — 47 years to the day before Findley’s arrest.
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