Federal authorities on Friday arrested and charged a Missouri woman in connection with the scheme to fraudulently auction Elvis Presley’s historic Graceland mansion.
Lisa Jeanine Findley — otherwise known as Lisa Holden, Lisa Howell, Gregory Naussany, Kurt Naussany, Lisa Jeanine Sullins and Carolyn Williams — was charged with mail fraud and aggravated identity theft, according to a news release by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Findley, 53, allegedly posed as three different people from Naussany Investments & Private Lending LLC, claiming the late Lisa Marie Presley had borrowed $3.8 million from it and offered Graceland as collateral.
Authorities allege that Findley created several fake documents to carry out the scam, including a creditor’s claim with the Superior Court of California in Los Angeles, a deed of trust with the Shelby County Register’s Office in Memphis and loan documents containing the forged signatures of Presley and Florida notary Kimberly L. Philbrick.
Riley Keough, Presley’s daughter who inherited Graceland, sued Naussany Investments in May to stop the foreclosure sale of the Memphis property after Findley allegedly published a fraudulent notice in a local newspaper that the mansion was up for auction.
Philbrick submitted an affidavit in support of Keough’s lawsuit that said she did not notarize any documents involving Presley. (She’s also since done interviews reiterating that her signature was forged.)
“I have never met Lisa Marie Presley, nor have I ever notarized a document signed by Lisa Marie Presley,” Philbrick’s affidavit read. “I do not know why my signature appears on this document.”
Chancellor JoeDae Jenkins ruled in favor of Keough’s lawsuit to stop the sale, while also indicating the court would move forward with deciding whether the loan and deed of trust were fraudulent.
No representatives for Naussany Investments were present at the May hearing. Hours after Jenkins’ ruling, a person purporting to be a Naussany Investments representative submitted a statement that said the company intended to drop its claims on Graceland, according to the Associated Press.
Naussany Investments was listed in court documents as being located in Kimberling City, Mo., but CNN found the firm’s claimed phone number was no longer in service and could not find any business by that name.
Authorities allege that Findley then posed as an identity thief from Nigeria and wrote to the Presley family, Tennessee state court and members of the press. The New York Times reported in May that it had received a set of emails, faxed from a toll-free number, in choppy Luganda, a Bantu language widely spoken in Uganda.
“We figure out how to steal,” the thief wrote to the New York Times. “That’s what we do.”
Referencing Keough, the message reportedly continued: “Yo client dont have nothing to worries, win fir her. She beat me at my own game.”
Findley will appear on Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri. If found guilty, Findley faces at least two years in prison for aggravated identity theft and a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for mail fraud.
