Missouri lady pleads responsible in brazen plot to promote Graceland

A Missouri lady pleaded responsible Tuesday to a federal cost accusing her of concocting a brazen plot to defraud Elvis Presley’s household by attempting to public sale off his Graceland mansion and property earlier than a choose halted the mysterious foreclosures sale.

Throughout a listening to in entrance of a Memphis federal choose, Lisa Jeanine Findley pleaded responsible to a cost of mail fraud associated to the scheme. She beforehand pleaded not responsible to the two-count indictment, which additionally features a rely of aggravated id theft that can now be dropped.

When requested by the choose if Findley was admitting guilt and accepting accountability, she stated “Sure.” Findley will likely be sentenced on June 19. She would have confronted as much as 20 years if convicted, however she is anticipated to obtain lower than that underneath the plea deal.

“We’re grateful for the onerous work of the federal investigators and prosecutors who secured this conviction,” Tennessee Lawyer Basic Jonathan Skrmetti stated in an announcement. “Graceland issues a lot to so many individuals around the globe – simply go to Memphis throughout Elvis Week and hearken to all of the completely different accents and languages of followers who make the pilgrimage. All of Tennessee is glad that Graceland stays safely within the possession of Elvis’s inheritor and that it’ll stay a celebrated Memphis landmark for generations to return.”

Findley, of Kimberling Metropolis, falsely claimed Presley’s daughter Lisa Marie Presley borrowed $3.8 million from a bogus non-public lender and had pledged Graceland as collateral for the mortgage earlier than her demise in January 2023, prosecutors alleged when she was charged in August 2024. She then threatened to promote Graceland to the best bidder if Presley’s household did not pay a $2.85 million settlement, in keeping with authorities.

Findley posed as three completely different individuals allegedly concerned with the pretend lender, fabricated mortgage paperwork, and revealed a fraudulent foreclosures discover in a Memphis newspaper saying the public sale of Graceland in Might 2024, prosecutors stated. A choose stopped the sale after Presley’s granddaughter Riley Keough sued.

Specialists have been baffled by the try to unload probably the most storied items of actual property within the nation utilizing names, emails and paperwork that have been rapidly suspected to be phony.

In Might, a public discover for a foreclosures sale of the 13-acre property stated Promenade Belief, which controls the Graceland museum, owes $3.8 million after failing to repay a 2018 mortgage. Keough inherited the belief and possession of the house after the demise of her mom, Lisa Marie Presley. 

Keough filed a lawsuit claiming fraud, and a choose halted the proposed public sale with an injunction. Naussany Investments and Personal Lending — the bogus lender authorities say Findley created — stated Lisa Marie Presley had used Graceland as collateral for the mortgage, in keeping with the foreclosures sale discover. Keough’s lawsuit alleged that Naussany introduced fraudulent paperwork concerning the mortgage in September 2023 and that Lisa Marie Presley by no means borrowed cash from Naussany. 

Kimberly Philbrick, the notary whose identify is listed on Naussany’s paperwork, indicated she by no means met Lisa Marie Presley nor notarized any paperwork for her, in keeping with the property’s lawsuit. The choose stated the notary’s affidavit brings into query “the authenticity of the signature.”

The choose halted the foreclosures sale of the beloved Memphis vacationer attraction, saying Elvis Presley’s property could possibly be profitable in arguing that an organization’s try to public sale Graceland was fraudulent.

Elvis purchased Graceland in 1957 and died there in 1977, and about 5 years later, the mansion was opened to the general public as a museum and vacationer attraction. A whole lot of 1000’s of vacationers go to the 17,552-square-foot mansion annually, which was named to the Nationwide Register of Historic Locations in 1991. Guests can then cease on the massive Presley-themed leisure complicated throughout the road.

Elvis and different members of the Presley household, together with Lisa Marie Presley and her son, Benjamin Keough, who died by suicide in 2020, are buried on the mansion’s grounds. 

Keough, who starred within the tv collection hit “Daisy Jones and The Six,” stated in a 2024 interview with CBS Information that she plans to proceed operating the beloved property and maintain the mansion within the household. Keough and her husband Ben Smith-Peterson have a daughter, Tupelo, who’s Elvis’ first great-grandchild. 

“I believe, like, my intuition with all the pieces is all the time to do what my mom would have needed. Which is to maintain it a house,” Keough informed CBS Information final yr. “It was our household’s house.”