A scamming grandma has pleaded guilty to a brazen scheme to defraud Elvis Presley’s family out of millions of dollars and auction off his iconic Graceland estate.
Lisa Jeanine Findley, 53, pleaded guilty to a single count of mail fraud in Memphis on Tuesday — and could face up to 20 years in prison when sentenced on June 18.
However, prosecutors have recommended she serve just under five years behind bars for concocting the plot — which was foiled by a judge when the famous property was mysteriously put up for a foreclosure sale.
The career scammer, of Kimberling City, Missouri, falsely claimed that Presley’s late daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, had pledged Graceland to her as collateral for a $3.8 million loan she hadn’t repaid prior to her death in January 2023, prosecutors said.
Findley threatened to sell the property to the highest bidder if the Presleys refused to cough over $2.8 million to settle the bogus claim, authorities said.
As part of the scheme, she created different personas associated with a fictitious financial company, Naussany Investments and Private Lending, and fabricated documents with Lisa Marie Presley’s signature.
She even boldly published a fraudulent foreclosure notice for Graceland in The Commercial Appeal, one of Memphis’s daily newspapers, announcing that the fake company planned to auction the historic property off in May 2024.
A judge blocked the sale after Lisa Marie Presley’s daughter, Riley Keough, filed a lawsuit, arguing the loan was fake and not executed by her mother.
State and then federal authorities launched an investigation into the matter after questions were raised about the authenticity of documents submitted to the court, officials said.
Experts were stunned by the shameless attempt to sell off one of the most renowned pieces of real estate in the country using names, emails and documents that were quickly suspected to be phony.
Kimberly Philbrick, the notary whose name is listed on Naussany’s documents, testified that she never met Lisa Marie Presley nor notarized any documents for her, according to the estate’s lawsuit.
As Findley’s scheme unraveled, she desperately attempted to pin the blame for the foreclosure sale attempt on a Nigerian identity thief.
“Graceland matters so much to so many people around the world – just go to Memphis during Elvis Week and listen to all the different accents and languages of fans who make the pilgrimage,” Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said, calling the plot “nonsense.”
“All of Tennessee is glad that Graceland remains safely in the possession of Elvis’s heir and that it will remain a celebrated Memphis landmark for generations to come.”
Findley had previously pleaded not guilty on the two-count indictment, which also included a count of aggravated identity theft that was dropped as part of the plea deal. Prosecutors are now seeking 57 months in prison.
Findley has a long history of romance scams and frauds totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars, NBC News reported. Before the Graceland scheme, she had served time in federal prison for taking out a false loans — and then was subsequently locked up again after she violated her release, courts records show.
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