Federal authorities arrested and charged a Missouri woman Friday in connection with a scheme to fraudulently auction off Elvis Presley's historic Graceland mansion.
Lisa Jeanine Findley, also known as Lisa Holden, Lisa Howell, Gregory Naussany, Kurt Naussany, Lisa Jeanine Sullins and Carolyn Williams, was charged with mail fraud and aggravated identity theft, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Findley, 53, allegedly impersonated three different people from Naussany Investments & Private Lending LLC, a fictitious company that claimed the late Lisa Marie Presley had borrowed $3.8 million from him and offered Graceland as collateral.
Authorities allege Findley created several false documents to carry out the scam, including a creditor's claim in California Superior Court in Los Angeles, a deed of trust with the Shelby County Recorder's Office in Memphis, and loan documents containing the forged signatures of Presley and Florida notary Kimberly L. Philbrick.
Riley Keough, Presley's daughter who inherited Graceland, sued Naussany Investments in May to stop the foreclosure sale of the Memphis property after Findley allegedly published a fraudulent notice in a local newspaper that the mansion was up for auction.
For his part, Philbrick filed an affidavit in support of Keough's suit stating that he had not notarized any documents relating to Presley (he has also since given interviews in which he has reiterated that his signature was forged).
“I have never met Lisa Marie Presley nor have I notarized any documents signed by her,” Philbrick’s affidavit said. “I do not know why my signature appears on this document.”
Chancellor JoeDae Jenkins ruled in favor of Keough's suit to stop the sale, though he also indicated the court would move forward with a decision on whether the loan and deed of trust were fraudulent.
No Naussany Investments representative was present at the hearing. Hours after Jenkins' decision, a person posing as a representative of Naussany Investments filed a statement saying the company intended to withdraw its claims to Graceland, according to the Associated Press.
CNN was unable to verify that Naussany Investments was a Missouri-based company, although the outlet had court documents indicating the company's location was Kimberling City, Mo.
However, the one person who did live in Kimberling City was Findley, who seemed to feel the heat of the national attention toward the strange saga.
Authorities say Findley posed as an identity thief from Nigeria and wrote to the Presley family, the Tennessee state court and members of the press. The New York Times reported in May that he had received a series of e-mails, faxed from a toll-free number, in broken Luganda, a Bantu language widely spoken in Uganda.
“We figured out how to steal,” the thief wrote to the New York Times. “That’s what we do.”
Referring to Keough, the message reportedly continued: “Your client has nothing to worry about, win for her. She beat me at my own game.”
Findley is scheduled to appear Friday in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri. If convicted, she faces at least two years in prison for aggravated identity theft and a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for mail fraud.
