A Woman Has Been Arrested For Trying To Steal Graceland And It's Only The Beginning

Elvis Presley cherished his Graceland mansion in Memphis, Tennessee. He lived at the property for 20 years, beginning in 1957 all the way until 1977, when he died of heart failure at 42 years old in one of its many washrooms. His granddaughter, Riley Keough, the oldest of Lisa Marie Presley's three daughters, is the current owner of the home, inheriting it after her mother died in 2023. It seems someone was hoping to upend all that, though. On August 16, 2024, 53-year-old Missouri resident Lisa Jeanine Findley was arrested for trying to steal the property, as TMZ reported.

Findley is accused of mail fraud and aggravated identity theft as part of an alleged scheme to swindle the historic home from the Presley family. The plot involves Naussany Investments & Private Lending LLC, which falsely claimed Lisa Marie had put the landmark up for sale — collateral for an purported outstanding loan that remained after her death. In May 2024, Graceland faced a foreclosure auction scheduled for the end of the month. Keough filed a temporary restraining order against Naussany Investments, which was granted and prevented the property from going up for sale. With Findley arrested, you might think that the whole ordeal is coming to an end — but it looks like things are just getting started.

Naussany Investments was seeking $2.8 of the alleged $3.8 million loan it said Lisa Marie Presley failed to repay before her 2023 death, Fox 2 reported. Riley Keough claimed the loan documents were fraudulent, and Lisa Findley might just be part of a much larger picture. "We think this is the first domino to fall not the last," an Elvis estate official told TMZ. "We do not believe this is the mastermind behind the scam. Statements attributed to the woman arrested have pointed to someone who has a loose affiliation with the Elvis world."

The case was set into motion when Keough contacted the FBI in May, and it's currently being investigated as a joint effort between the bureau and the United States Postal Inspection Service. When Shelby County Chancellor JoeDae Jenkins halted Graceland's foreclosure sale that same month, executives from Naussany Investments — a fake company — pulled back the curtain and took credit for the plot. They claimed to be from Nigeria and threatened to continue scamming as part of an organized crime ring focused on identity theft. "We sit back and laugh at you idiots and watch you make fools of yourselves," read one email of many sent to various media outlets, including NBC News and The New York Times. "Come find us in Nigeria."

Lisa Jeanine Findley, the only person thus far arrested for the alleged scheme, was born in California in 1971, and she's been in and out of the legal system her whole life. According to NBC News, her first crime was a forged check, and most of her offenses were linked to fraud (she defrauded multiple romantic partners), cons, and obstruction of justice. She was eventually hit with federal charges in 2005 for swindling banks out of almost $200,000 in loans using fake Social Security numbers. After serving around four years she was out on parole, but she continued getting into trouble with the law and bouncing in and out of prison.

NBC News claims Findley goes by multiple alias', including last names Howell, Holden, and Sullins. People who know her described her to the outlet as many things: a woman who inherited her wealth, a cancer faker, a scammer. She allegedly waged war against people and businesses amid various personal vendettas, possibly even posing as a detective. The outlet initially tied her to the Graceland case in June 2024 and noted that she used the name "Naussany" to post reviews for people and businesses on Facebook and Google — positive ones for those she liked, negative for those she didn't. One of Naussany's listed addresses in Hollister, Missouri is connected with the name and email address Findley currently uses.

All this to say, Findley has a long history of fraud and criminal behavior that culminated in the purported Graceland scheme. If convicted, the U.S. Department of Justice says she faces a mandatory minimum of 2 years in prison for identity theft and a maximum of 20 years in prison for mail fraud. Given her history, she could be going away for a while.