Inside the plot to steal Graceland from Elvis Presley’s family

Since Elvis Presley’s untimely death at 42, the descendants of ‘The King of Rock ’n’ Roll’ have had to weather many challenges to his legacy. There have been divorces, premature deaths, drug addiction, suicide, rifts and terrible fallings out.

Yet through it all, Graceland, his historic estate in Memphis, Tennessee — set in more than 13 rolling green acres, with its magnificent, white pillared portico — has stood strong; an emblem of resilience, a fortress holding the disparate clan together, over the past 47 years.

The Presley DNA runs through the soil like a seam: Elvis is buried there, along with both his parents, his paternal grandmother, grandson and — most recently — his daughter Lisa Marie, who died last year aged 54.

The family’s self-appointed matriarch, ex-wife Priscilla, has stated her intention to be reunited with her former husband here, when her time comes.

The idea of Graceland ever belonging to any other family is unthinkable. And yet, last week, it was forced to defend itself against a sinister attempt to wrestle the iconic property — visited by hundreds of thousands of fans every year — from the Presley family’s control.

The audacious bid began in September when a company calling itself Naussany Investments and Private Lending claimed it had loaned Elvis’s daughter Lisa Marie $3.8 million (£3 million) in 2018, with her father’s historic property as collateral. According to the company, Lisa Marie was supposed to pay off the loan by May 2022.

Following the death of Elvis’s only child in January 2023, after years of ill-health and addiction issues, the mysterious investment company pressed the surviving Presley family members for repayment. The company sent the family multiple documents, including the alleged loan agreement, apparently completed in Duval County, Florida, and signed by Lisa Marie and then notarised — witnessed by a lawyer.

In emails to the family’s lawyers, the company claimed that it would ‘accept’ a reduced sum of $2.8 million (£2 million) to satisfy the loan, and then filed a collection claim in a Los Angeles court.

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Lisa Marie’s eldest daughter and heir, Riley, 34, who, after her mother’s death became the sole trustee of the Promenade Trust that protects the assets of Elvis’s estate, refused to pay. Then, several weeks ago, Naussany Investments took out a classified advertisement in a local Memphis newspaper announcing its intention to hold the foreclosure sale on the steps of a Memphis courthouse on Thursday, May 23, when Graceland would be sold to the ‘best and highest bidder’.

This prompted Riley, an actress who recently appeared in the drama series Daisy Jones & The Six, to launch a lawsuit filed on May 20, days before the purported sale, to stop the auction going ahead.

In the lawsuit she alleged that her late mother had never taken out a loan with Naussany Investments and that Lisa Marie’s signature had been forged.

Riley further alleged that she did not believe Naussany Investments was a ‘real entity’, since it was not registered as a business in Florida, or in Missouri — the company has no bricks-and-mortar location, just postbox addresses.

In further evidence, the actress also submitted an affidavit from Florida notary Kimberly Philbrick, who the company claimed had verified Lisa Marie’s loan document six years ago. Philbrick confirmed in the statement that she had never met Elvis’s daughter and had never notarised anything for her. ‘I don’t know why my signature appears on this document,’ she wrote.

A temporary injunction was granted last week and, on May 21, a person by the name of Gregory Naussany, of Jacksonville, Florida, filed a one-page motion for an adjournment to a later date at Shelby County Chancery Court in Memphis.

This was denied after a judge noted that, while Riley’s legal team was present, neither Mr Naussany nor any lawyer for Naussany Investments had shown up to court — which, considering the sums involved, and the worldwide attention it was bound to attract, was highly suspicious.

Even the judge seemed to appreciate the significance of the sale. ‘The court will adjourn the sale as requested because . . . the real estate is considered unique under Tennessee law and in being unique, the loss of the real estate would be considered irreparable harm,’ Shelby County Chancellor, JoeDae L. Jenkins said.

He added: ‘Graceland is part of this community, well loved by this community and indeed around the world.’

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The story took a further turn for the absurd when Riley’s legal team received an email from Gregory Naussany confirming that the company did not intend to go ahead with its claim.

The reason he put forward was that a key document in the case had been filed in Florida while others had been recorded in different states.

‘Legal action would have to be filed in multiple states,’ the email read. ‘The company will be withdrawing all claims with prejudice’, meaning, any chance of it having another try, at a later late, is effectively extinguished.

In his email Mr Naussany added, somewhat cynically: ‘There was no harm meant on Ms Keough’.

Yet there will be no rejoicing in Memphis. The guns may have quietened, but it would seem this family is never too far away from its latest drama.

‘The whole thing was ridiculous, probably carried out by some guy in his pyjamas, sitting in a basement somewhere,’ Jeff Morris, a long-time friend of the Presley family, told the Mail. ‘But I don’t think this is the end of it. There will be repercussions.’

Priscilla did not hold back about the latest trouble to befall her family, either, writing on X earlier this week: ‘It’s a scam!’

And Riley Keough probably would see things differently, too. The talented actress and director has shouldered a lot of troubles in her privileged life, first among them her mother’s chaotic marital history, which saw her marry and divorce four times, most famously to disgraced pop icon Michael Jackson, and actor Nicholas Cage, a union which famously lasted only 107 days.

She and her younger brother Benjamin were born during Lisa’s six-year marriage to her first husband, musician Danny Keough. Benjamin, to whom she was very close, was an aspiring musician who, like his mother, struggled with drug and alcohol addictions. He took his own life in 2020, aged 27.

No doubt Riley, who married Australian stuntman Ben Smith-Petersen in 2015, will be seeking answers to the questions that still surround this intriguing case, including exactly who was responsible for orchestrating this direct attack on her family legacy.

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There is no record of anyone called Gregory Naussany, or Kurt Naussany, who is also mentioned in the documents, at any address in the U.S. Some of the language in documents filed by the company and emails sent by Mr Naussany have grammatical errors, suggesting the person or people involved do not speak English as a first language. Additionally, the company did not file the required documents with the local authorities to prove they had a legal claim on Graceland.

‘In order for a foreclosure to go ahead, an entity would have to have this documentation notarised, filed and then certified by the registrar — none of which was done in this case,’ said Clint Anderson, deputy administrator of the Shelby County Register of Deeds.

The bizarre saga has surprised and unsettled the people in Elvis’s hometown, where Graceland is a major tourist attraction, bringing in $100 million (£78 million) a year, but Jeff Morris, a master auctioneer in the property business, as well as a Presley family friend, says deed fraud, when thieves transfer a home title to themselves, is not uncommon.

According to the FBI’s 2022 Internet Crime Report, some 11,827 individuals in the U.S. were victims of property fraud — a tiny percentage of the 87 million homeowners in the U.S. — but the numbers are growing.

‘I’m always fascinated by the criminal mind, but I don’t think they would have got away with it — it was stupid of them to try it with Graceland,’ Morris added.

‘It’s a different matter when it’s a private citizen who isn’t aware this type of fraud exists and who doesn’t have the money to hire an attorney.’

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Like many people in Memphis, Morris is relieved that Graceland was saved. Elvis bought the mansion in 1957 for £80,000 — money from a new recording contract — and it became symbolic of his rags to enormous riches tale.

Morris has fond memories of Elvis: his mother, Ann, graduated from high school with the singer, and his father, Bill, who served three terms as the local sheriff before becoming mayor of Shelby County, was also a close friend of the star.

‘We got to spend Christmas at Graceland in 1970 and 1971, and it was pretty cool back then,’ Morris recalls. ‘The mansion was decorated with a tree and lights and everyone was very excited.’

Morris, then a teenager, recalls Elvis in a velour jumpsuit supervising the festivities, while Priscilla and little Lisa Marie wore Raggedy Ann costumes, named after a rag doll character in an American children’s book.

‘They were just being kinda silly and funny — Lisa Marie would have been four or five and Priscilla was gorgeous.

‘Elvis loved Christmas and he was a big meatloaf fan back then — he sure did have an odd sense of cuisine at his house. We were in awe of the whole thing, but he was a very gracious guy.’

His parents, he adds, spent a lot of time with Elvis and Priscilla.

‘Elvis used to rent out a local movie theatre and bring back some of the movies from Hollywood before they got released and show them to his friends.

‘He’d go out in the garden with his cousins and have fireworks wars with Roman candles and garbage lids for shields — Elvis was just a big kid who liked to have fun.’

As trustee of the Promenade Trust, Elvis’s granddaughter has a duty to protect the estate and all its assets, and must fend off all claims, including those that are clearly bogus ones, says Benny Roshan, who heads the Trust and Probate Litigation Group at the law company Greenberg Glusker in Los Angeles.

With no documents filed related to a financial claim on Graceland, it’s unlikely the case would have had any chance, but the Presley family could not take that risk. It’s never ‘prudent to assume a claim is false’, she says. They had to act.

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‘It’s a bizarre claim for sure, and the fact that the entity “withdrew all claims with prejudice” means they obviously saw the writing on the wall as to the viability of the claims, or were advised to back off a scheme aimed at getting 15 minutes of fame on the coattails of a famous family.’

It has been announced that Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti will now be investigating the matter.

‘Graceland is one of the most iconic landmarks in the State of Tennessee, and the Presley family has generously shared it with the world since Elvis’s passing.

‘My office has fought fraud against homeowners for decades, and there is no home in Tennessee more beloved than Graceland,’ he said in a statement. ‘I have asked my lawyers to look into this matter, determine the full extent of any misconduct that may have occurred and identify what we can do to protect both Elvis Presley’s heirs and anyone else who may be similarly threatened.’

And, predictably, the peculiar case has been the talk of tourists at Graceland this week, where fans were paying up to $220 (£172) for a VIP Elvis experience, seeing the King’s Gold Records, jewelled jumpsuits and classic cars, while they reflect on the life of an American legend.

‘I don’t know how they thought they would get away with it, because it makes no sense,’ says Morris. To which Elvis fans would say: ‘Don’t let down your guard just yet’. Where the Presley fortune is concerned, drama and heartache are never far away.