Image Credit: Greene County Sheriff’s Office & Elvis Presley’s Graceland / Facebook
The Tennessee Conservative Staff –
A Missouri woman was sentenced to more than four years in federal prison after creating a fake company and forging documents in an attempt to fraudulently sell Elvis Presley’s former home Graceland.
54-year-old Lisa Jeanine Findley was sentenced by U.S. District Judge John T. Fowlkes, Jr., in a Memphis federal court. Fowlkes sentenced her to four years and nine months in jail, plus another three years of probation.
In February, Findley pleaded guilty to mail fraud charges. An additional charge of aggravated identity theft was dropped as part of a plea agreement.
According to prosecutors, Findley claimed that Presley’s daughter Lisa Marie had borrowed $3.8 million from her fake lending company prior to her death in January 2023, using Graceland as collateral for that loan. Findley threatened the family that she would sell the home if she did not receive a settlement of $2.85 million.
Throughout the course of the scheme, Findley allegedly posed as three different individuals who were involved in various parts of the process. She also produced faked legal documents and ran a false foreclosure notice in a Memphis newspaper, announcing an auction of Graceland to be held in May 2024.
That auction was stopped by a judge after Presley’s granddaughter, Riley Keough filed a lawsuit. Keough inherited the home and Promenade Trust, which has control over the museum, after her mother died.
Kimberly Philbrick, the notary who is listed on the fraudulent documents, says she never had any dealings with Lisa Marie Presley. After investigation, it was determined that Findley falsified the entire thing.
Findley has a previous history of writing bad checks and tried to falsely claim that the Graceland scheme had been orchestrated by a Nigerian identity thief.
Her defense attorneys argued for a lesser sentence, stating that the Presley estate had not lost any money and the whole thing was a “concocted idea” that would not have ever worked anyway.
