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The woman who attempted to sell Elvis Presley’s Graceland for millions of dollars has been sentenced.
Per the Associated Press, Lisa Jeanine Findley of Kimberling City, Mo., was sentenced on Tuesday, Sept. 23, to more than four years and nine months of federal prison, along with nine months of probation.
U.S. District Judge John T. Fowlkes Jr. called Findley’s attempt to sell Graceland a “highly sophisticated scheme to defraud.” Findley, 54, did not speak at the sentencing.
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Findley was arrested and charged with mail fraud and aggravated identity theft in August 2024 for allegedly attempting to sell the iconic home.
Findley had “orchestrated a scheme to conduct a fraudulent sale of Graceland,” Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, per a press release, adding that Findley claimed that Lisa Marie Presley “pledged the historic landmark as collateral for a loan that she failed to repay before her death.”
“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,” added Argentieri.
Findley used various aliases and posed as a fictitious private lender, Naussany Investments & Private Lending LLC (Naussany Investments), and allegedly falsely claimed that Lisa Marie borrowed $3.8 million in 2018 from the fake lender, used Graceland as collateral and failed to repay the allegedly owed money.
Findley then allegedly sought $2.85 million from the Presley family and forged documents alleging to have Lisa Marie’s signature and the sign-off from a Florida notary.
She also allegedly published a disclosure announcement in the Memphis newspaper, The Commercial Appeal, claiming that Naussany Investments would be auctioning off the iconic Graceland to the highest bidder that May.
The fraudulent investment company was sued by Presley’s family in the Tennessee state court to stop the auction in May 2024. Riley Keough, Elvis’ granddaughter, who is the heir to Graceland, called “the note and deed of trust are fraudulent and unenforceable” in court docs.
“The purported note and deed of trust are products of fraud and those individuals who were involved in the creation of such documents are believed to be guilty of the crime of forgery,” she alleged at the time.
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Priscilla Presley, Elvis’s former wife, posted on Instagram that reports of the sale were a “scam.”
A judge halted the sale the day before it was slated to happen and hours after Findley’s fraudulent company dropped all claims on the property.
Once the scheme became a major news story, Findley allegedly “wrote to representatives of Elvis Presley’s family, the Tennessee state court, and the media to claim falsely that the person responsible for the scheme was a Nigerian identity thief located in Nigeria,” per a press release.
In February, Findley pleaded guilty to the mail fraud charge. The aggravated identity theft charge was dropped as part of a plea deal.
She could have faced up to 20 years in prison but likely received a lesser sentence because of the plea deal.
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Elvis bought Graceland in 1957 for $102,500 and lived there until his death in 1977. Five years later, the property was open to the public.
Elvis, along with his parents Vernon and Gladys Presley, paternal grandmother Minnie Mae Presley, grandson Benjamin Keough, and daughter Lisa Marie are buried there.
