The fraudster who as soon as self-identified as “the one who creates trouble” has been unmasked by the Division of Justice as 53-year-old Lisa Jeanine Findley. Prosecutors mentioned Findley has passed by a number of aliases through the years.
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The Division of Justice has charged a Missouri girl in reference to a scheme to take possession of Elvis Presley’s former dwelling, Graceland, and extort his descendants for thousands and thousands of {dollars}, the division introduced on Friday.
The date occurred to coincide with the anniversary of Elvis Presley’s dying in 1977. Presley was discovered unresponsive at Graceland that day, 47 years in the past, on the age of 42.
The 53-year-old, Lisa Jeanine Findley, was arrested on Friday morning for allegedly coordinating the tried foreclosures of Graceland by claiming that Presley’s late daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, had put Graceland up as collateral on a mortgage she did not repay earlier than she died in 2023.
“The defendant orchestrated a scheme to conduct a fraudulent sale of Graceland, falsely claiming that Elvis Presley’s daughter had pledged the historic landmark as collateral for a loan that she failed to repay before her death,” mentioned Nicole M. Argentieri, principal deputy assistant legal professional common on the Justice Division.
Findley has been charged with mail fraud and aggravated identification theft. If convicted, she may spend a compulsory minimal of two years in jail for aggravated identification theft and a most of 20 years for mail fraud.
In accordance with prosecutors, she has passed by the aliases Lisa Holden, Lisa Howell, Lisa Jeanine Sullins, Carolyn Williams, Gregory Naussany and Kurt Naussany.
In Might, a person who represented themselves as being related to a pretend personal lender firm often called Naussany Investments, which had tried to take over Graceland by way of foreclosures, responded to an electronic mail from The New York Instances and allegedly revealed themselves to be a fraudster based mostly in Nigeria.
“I am the one who creates trouble,” the e-mail author mentioned, suggesting their deep involvement on the darkish net and clandestine networks all through the U.S. “We figure out how to steal. That’s what we do.”
Courtroom paperwork say that Findley represented herself as varied staff of Naussany Investments and claimed that Lisa Marie Presley had borrowed $2.8 million from the corporate. Prosecutors mentioned the mortgage by no means existed.
By submitting false foreclosures paperwork, deeds and claims in courtroom, Findley tried to get the Presley household at hand over $2.85 million to Naussany Investments, or they might public sale off the property to the best bidder.
Nonetheless, Lisa Marie Presley’s daughter, actor Danielle Riley Keough, sued to retain possession of the property, which she had inherited on her mom’s dying. Keough claimed the mortgage was not legit and that Naussany Investments was “a false entity.” Keough’s legal professionals additionally claimed signatures of Ms. Presley and a notary on a few of Naussany’s paperwork had been cast.
After the foreclosures of Graceland was blocked by a Chancery Courtroom in Tennessee following Keough’s lawsuit, Naussany ceased all makes an attempt at foreclosures. The courtroom had decided that the foreclosures public sale would irreparably hurt Keough and postponed the foreclosures till it could possibly be decided who maintained rights to the property.
Earlier this summer time, the Tennessee legal professional common’s workplace handed over its investigation to the Justice Division.
The Postal Inspection Service additionally reportedly performed a task within the investigation, making a connection between Naussany Investments’ enterprise tackle at a publish workplace in Hollister, Missouri, close to Findley’s dwelling, the place she rented P.O. Field 1015. The rental utility had been submitted below the title “Lisa Holden,” one in every of Findley’s aliases.
On Friday, legislation enforcement officers expressed shock on the audacity of a fraudster to focus on such a high-profile property.
U.S. Legal professional for the Western District of Tennessee Kevin G. Ritz mentioned in an announcement, “As a Memphian, I know that Graceland is a national treasure.”
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