A Missouri lady has been arrested for allegedly making an attempt to defraud the household of Elvis Presley and steal their possession curiosity in Graceland, the U.S. Department of Justice introduced Friday (Aug. 16).

The 53-year-old lady, whose title is Lisa Jeanine Findley however has passed by quite a few aliases, has been charged with mail fraud and aggravated id theft. She faces a most of 20 years in jail on the previous cost and a compulsory minimal of two years on the latter; she made an preliminary courtroom look in Missouri on Friday.

“As alleged in the complaint, 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,” stated Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s prison division, in a press release. “As part of the brazen scheme, we allege that the defendant created numerous false documents and sought to extort a settlement from the Presley family. Now she is facing federal charges. The Criminal Division and its partners are committed to holding fraudsters to account.”

According to paperwork filed in U.S. District Court in Tennessee on Thursday (Aug. 15), Findley allegedly posed as three completely different individuals affiliated with an organization referred to as Naussany Investments & Private Lending in claiming that Presley’s daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, had used the famed Memphis mansion as collateral to safe a mortgage of $3.8 million that she failed to repay. She additionally allegedly fabricated mortgage paperwork and cast the signatures of Lisa Marie and a notary public to file a false creditor’s declare with the Superior Court of California in Los Angeles and a false deed of belief with the Shelby Country Register’s Office in Memphis. The Justice Department additionally claims that Findley revealed a fraudulent foreclosures discover in the Memphis each day newspaper The Commercial Appeal asserting that Naussany Investments would public sale Graceland on May 23.

The tried public sale was shortly blocked after Presley’s granddaughter and Lisa Marie’s daughter, Riley Keough — who took over as trustee of Promenade Trust, the entity that controls Graceland, following Lisa Marie’s demise in January 2023 — gained a courtroom order halting it. Shortly thereafter, Findley allegedly wrote to Presley household representatives, the Tennessee state courtroom and the media to falsely declare that the individual liable for the faud was an id thief based mostly in Nigeria.

“Fame and money are magnets for criminals who look to capitalize on another person’s celebrity status,” stated Eric Shen, inspector in cost of U.S. Postal Inspection Service Criminal Investigations Group (USPIS), in a press release. “In this case, Ms. Findley allegedly took advantage of the very public and tragic occurrences in the Presley family as an opportunity to prey on the name and financial status of the heirs to the Graceland estate, attempting to steal what rightfully belongs to the Presley family for her personal gain. Postal Inspectors and their law enforcement partners put an end to her alleged scheme, protecting the Presley family from continued harm and stress.”