WASHINGTON — A Missouri woman has been arrested on suspicion of orchestrating a scheme to fraudulently sell Elvis Presley’s Graceland ranch in Memphis, the Justice Department said Friday.
Lisa Jeanine Findley, 53, of Kimberling City, Missouri, is accused of conspiring to steal the Presley family’s ownership stake in Graceland, prosecutors said, falsely claiming that Presley’s daughter had pledged the property as collateral for a loan she was unable to repay before her death.
“As part of this brazen scheme, we allege that the defendant created numerous false documents and attempted to extort a settlement from the Presley family,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, chief of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
An attorney for Findley, who used multiple aliases, was not listed in court documents, and a phone number was not immediately available in public records. An email seeking comment, sent to an address that prosecutors say Findley used in the scheme, was not immediately returned.
In May, a judge halted the foreclosure sale of the beloved Memphis tourist attraction, saying Elvis Presley’s estate could succeed in arguing that a company’s attempt to auction Graceland was fraudulent.
The Tennessee Attorney General’s Office was investigating the controversy surrounding Graceland, when confirmed in June that the investigation was turned over to federal authorities.
