(Washington) A woman was arrested Friday in the United States for an alleged extortion attempt to seize the estate of Elvis Presley, by robbing his deceased daughter in a “brazen scheme,” the Justice Department said.
The 53-year-old suspect, Lisa Jeanine Findley, is facing charges including identity theft and could face up to 20 years in prison.
She is suspected of having tried to appropriate Graceland, the “King’s” estate located in Memphis, Tennessee, by arguing that Lisa Marie Presley, who died in January 2023, had borrowed $3.8 million from a company called Naussany Investments by putting Graceland as collateral, and that Elvis Presley’s only daughter had not repaid this loan.
She then tried to organize an auction of the property for the benefit of Naussany Investments, but this procedure was blocked at the last minute in May by a Tennessee judge, at the request of the daughter of the late Lisa Marie Presley, the actress Riley Keough, who had filed a complaint.
The Justice Department said in a statement that the suspect had forged “numerous false documents,” including the signatures of Elvis Presley’s daughter and a Florida notary, and that she was in fact seeking to reach “an amicable settlement” with the Presley family.
The world-famous property has become a museum and an important place of pilgrimage for fans of the rock ‘n’ roll legend.
It was in this house that the famous singer was found unconscious in August 1977, shortly before his death, at the age of 42, was pronounced at the hospital.