Arrest Made in Graceland Foreclosure Scam
The United States Department of Justice announced an arrest was made in the alleged Graceland foreclosure scam.
The DOJ shared in a press release that Lisa Jeanine Findley, 53, of Kimberling City, Missouri, was arrested for allegedly committing a scam in an attempt to threaten foreclosure on Graceland and defraud the Elvis Presley estate of millions of dollars. Findley has been known to go by a number of aliases, including Lisa Holden, Lisa Howell, Gregory Naussany, Kurt Naussany, Lisa Jeanine Sullins, and Carolyn Williams.
Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, said in a statement, “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. Now she is facing federal charges. The Criminal Division and its partners are committed to holding fraudsters to account.”
Findley is being charged with mail fraud and aggravated identity theft. Both charges have the potential of her being sentenced to prison for many years. The aggravated identity theft charge has a mandatory minimum prison sentence of two years. Meanwhile, the mail fraud charge has a maximum prison sentence of 20 years. Considering the scope of the scam, if Findley is convicted, she could easily spend the next two decades or more in prison.
A Timeline on the Graceland Foreclosure News
On May 20, news broke about the pending foreclosure of Graceland, the mansion belonging to the late Elvis Presley, which has long operated as a museum following Presley’s death in 1977.
According to CommercialAppeal.com, there were three “Notice of Foreclosure Sale” listings for Graceland dated for May 5, 12 and 19. In these listings, it stated that Lisa Marie allegedly signed a Deed of Trust with Naussany Investments and Private Lending LLC worth $3.8 million. This amount of money was reportedly a loan that used Graceland as collateral.
This loan has reportedly defaulted and has not been paid on since the sudden passing of Lisa Marie Presley in January 2023. Following the foreclosure notice and the reported default, Graceland was set to be auctioned off on May 23.
On May 15, Riley Keough, who inherited Graceland from her mother Lisa Marie, filed a lawsuit against Naussany Investments and Private Lending LLC. In the lawsuit, Keough claimed that the documents used as evidence of the reported loan were forgeries and that her mother did not actually sign the documents. Her lawsuit contained two pieces of evidence that could lead to the Graceland foreclosure notice actually being part of a scam.
The strongest piece of evidence was a signed affidavit from Kimberly Philbrick, the notary public who reportedly acknowledged the signing of the documents for the $3.8 million loan. The signed affidavit in Keough’s lawsuit shows that Philbrick states she “did not notarize” the loan document, has “never met Lisa Marie Presley” nor “ever notarized a document signed by Lisa Marie Presley.” Philbrick’s affidavit also notes, “I do not know why my signature appears on this document.”
The other piece of evidence has to do with language included in the documents involved in the alleged $3.8 million loan, which was reportedly notarized in Florida in May 2018. The language in question involves either physical or online presence for any document notarization. However, online notarization of any documentation in the State of Florida didn’t begin until 2020, and such language in notarization documents wasn’t included prior to 2020.
On May 22, Keough was successful in her injunction attempt, which halted the foreclosure sale of Graceland. As previously reported, the judge in the injunction hearing ruled that the authenticity of the deed of trust allegedly signed by the late Lisa Marie Presley in order to secure a $3.8 million loan from Naussany Investments and Private Lending LLC is being called into question.
The judge was quoted saying, “The court will enjoin the sale as requested because, one, the real estate is considered unique under Tennessee law. And in being unique, the loss of the real estate would be considered irreparable harm.”
Elvis Presley Enterprises issued a statement to the media following the injunction hearing saying, “As the court has now made clear, there was no validity to the claims. There will be no foreclosure. Graceland will continue to operate as it has for the past 42 years, ensuring that Elvis fans from around the world can continue to have a best in class experience when visiting his iconic home.”
In June, an investigation from NBC News reporters Brandy Zadrozny and Jon Schuppe traced the Graceland foreclosure attempt to a woman they identified as Lisa Holden, which is one of Findley’s many aliases. The investigation highlighted Findley’s many scams, which were often against those she was dating. Over the past few decades, Findley pretended to hold a variety of different occupations, from being an underwater welder to being a cannabis entrepreneur. She was also in and out of jail from the late ’90s to the late 2010s.
The NBC News investigation found three pieces of evidence from the Graceland foreclosure filings that were ties back to Lisa. Those pieces included a fax number and a phone number, which she also used in a dispute with a Branson, Missouri nail salon, and a PO Box address, which a public records database listed as belonging to Lisa. (In the Graceland filings, this PO Box was listed as the address of Naussany Investments and Private Lending LLC, the company from which Lisa Marie Presley allegedly secured $3.8 million loan that used Graceland as collateral.)
