A Missouri woman has pleaded guilty to a ‘brazen’ attempt to fraudulently auction off Elvis Presley’s Graceland estate.
Lisa Findley admitted to forging the signatures of the King of Rock and Roll’s late daughter Lisa Marie Presley, as well as Florida notary Kimberly Philbrick as part of the scheme.
On Tuesday she pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud in US District Court in Memphis, Tennessee.
Findley initially denied the charges and was due to head to trial but struck a plea deal which saw one count of aggravated identity theft which had also been filed against her dismissed.
She faces up to 20 years in jail on the mail fraud charge and prosecutors are recommending she be given 57 months.
They told the court Findley was guilty of a ‘brazen scheme’ to try to ‘extort a settlement from the Presley family.’
As part of the plot, she forged the signatures to make it appear as though Lisa Marie had not paid back a $3.8 million loan from a purported company called Naussany Investments that listed Graceland as collateral prior to her death in January 2023.
A Missouri woman has pleaded guilty to a ‘brazen’ attempt to fraudulently auction off Elvis Presley’s Graceland estate
Lisa Findley admitted to forging the signatures of the King of Rock and Roll’s late daughter Lisa Marie Presley , as well as Florida notary Kimberly Philbrick as part of the scheme
Prosecutors said Findley was guilty of a ‘brazen scheme’ to try to ‘extort a settlement from the Presley family’
Lisa Marie Presley pictured with her daughter Riley Keough in June 2022
Graceland opened as a museum and tourist attraction in 1982 and draws hundreds of thousands of visitors each year
Findley posed as three different people allegedly involved with the fake lender, fabricated loan documents, and published a fraudulent foreclosure notice in a Memphis newspaper announcing the auction of Graceland in May 2024, prosecutors said.
A foreclosure sale of Graceland had been scheduled to be held in May, but a Tennessee judge blocked the auction of the Memphis property at the last minute after Elvis’s granddaughter, actress Riley Keough, filed a lawsuit alleging the loan documents were forgeries.
Philbrick, the notary whose name is listed on Naussany’s documents, indicated she never met Lisa Marie Presley nor notarized any documents for her, according to the estate’s lawsuit.
The judge said the notary’s affidavit brought into question ‘the authenticity of the signature.’
Experts were baffled by the attempt to sell off one of the most storied pieces of real estate in the country using names, emails and documents that were quickly suspected to be phony.
After the scheme fell apart, Findley tried to make it look like the person responsible was a Nigerian identity thief, prosecutors said
Graceland opened as a museum and tourist attraction in 1982 and draws hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.
A large Presley-themed entertainment complex across the street from the museum is owned by Elvis Presley Enterprises. Presley died there in August 1977, at the age of 42.
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