A Missouri woman who tried to use a fake company and forged documents to sell off Elvis Presley's Graceland for millions of dollars has been sentenced to jail.
Lisa Jeanine Findley will spend four years and nine months in a US federal prison for her attempt to extort the Presley family's estate for US $3.8 million.
Experts were baffled by the attempt to sell of one of the most storied pieces of real estate in the country using names, emails and documents quickly suspected to be a forgery.
So how did it happen?
Naussany fake lender
An allegations of fraud came to light in 2024 when US media began reporting Graceland — singer Elvis Presley's iconic mansion in Memphis — was to be auctioned off after a public notice was issued for the foreclosure sale of the property.
In early May of that year, Naussany Investments and Private Lending said that Promenade Trust, which controls Graceland Museum, owes $US3.8 million ($5.7 million) after failing to repay a 2018 loan.
It said that Presley's daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, who died a year earlier, had used Graceland as collateral for a loan.
But those claims turned out to be false and Nassauny Investments and Private Lending was actually a fake lender, authorities say, was created by Findley.
The property's sale was halted when Lisa Marie Presley's daughter, Riley Keogh sued on behalf of Promenade Trust, claiming that Naussany presented fraudulent documents regarding the loan in September 2023.
"Lisa Maria Presley never borrowed money from Naussany Investments and never gave a deed of trust to Naussany Investments," Ms Keough's lawyer wrote in a lawsuit.
Riley Keogh inherited the property when Lisa Marie Presley died.
Forged documents used
Then, a few months later in August, Findley was arrested for what police described as a brazen scheme to try and sell off the Graceland Estate.
Ms Findley posed as three different people allegedly involved with the fake lender, fabricated loan documents, and published a fraudulent foreclosure notice in a Memphis newspaper announcing the auction of Graceland in May, prosecutors said.
The announcement of charges came on the 47th anniversary of Presley's death at the age of 42.
US Postal Inspection Service Criminal Investigations Group Inspector in charge Eric Shen said Ms Findley attempted to steal what "rightfully belongs to the Presley family for her personal gain".
Kimberly Philbrick, the notary whose name is listed on Naussany's documents, said she never met Lisa Marie Presley nor notarised any documents for her, according to the estate's lawsuit.
The judge said the notary's affidavit brought into question the authenticity of the signature.
A statement emailed to The Associated Press after the judge stopped the sale said Naussany would not proceed with the sale because a key document in the case and the loan were recorded and obtained in a different state, meaning "legal action would have to be filed in multiple states."
The statement, sent from an email address for Naussany listed in court documents, did not specify the other state.
After the scheme fell apart, Findley, who has a criminal history that includes attempts at passing bad cheques, tried to make it look like the person responsible was a Nigerian identity thief, prosecutors said.
Plot 'concocted idea'
In arguing for a three-year sentence, defense attorney Tyrone Paylor said that Presley's estate did not suffer any loss of money and countered the prosecution's stance that the scheme was executed in a sophisticated manner.
Mr Paylor added that the plot was a "concocted idea" that had no real possibility of success.
US District Court Judge John T Fowlkes said it would have been a "travesty of justice" if the sale had been completed.
Judge Fowlkes also questioned how Findley thought the sale could be accomplished.
"This was a highly sophisticated scheme to defraud," he said.
ABC/Wires
