Missouri woman charged with attempting to defraud Elvis Presley’s family by selling Graceland
A Missouri woman has been arrested on suspicion of planning a fraudulent sale of Elvis Presley’s Graceland estate in Memphis, the Justice Department said Friday.
Lisa Jeanine Findley, 53, of Kimberling City, Missouri, is accused of stealing the Presley family’s ownership interest in Graceland, prosecutors said, falsely claiming that Presley’s daughter had pledged the property as collateral for a loan she defaulted on before her death.
“As part of the brazen scheme, we allege that the defendant created numerous false documents and attempted to extort compensation from the Presley family,” said Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, chief of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
An attorney for Findley, who used several aliases, was not listed in court documents and a phone number was not immediately available in public records. An email seeking comment to an address prosecutors said Findley used in the plot was not immediately returned.
In May, a judge halted the foreclosure of the popular Memphis tourist attraction, saying Elvis Presley’s heirs could succeed by arguing that a company’s attempt to auction Graceland was fraudulent.
The Tennessee Attorney General’s Office investigated the Graceland case and confirmed in June that it had turned the investigation over to federal authorities.
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