Judge Blocks Attempt to Sell Graceland
A judge has halted the attempt to sell Elvis Presley’s iconic Graceland estate.
At a hearing that took place Wednesday in Memphis, Tennessee, a Shelby County judge blocked the attempted sale after Graceland had been scheduled for a foreclosure auction on Thursday.
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In a hearing that lasted only eight minutes, according to ABC, Chancellor JoeDae Jenkins adjourned the sale of Graceland saying, “The notary has sworn that the notary did not notarize the signature of Lisa Marie Presley on the deed of trust, which brings into question the authenticity of the signature.”
In a lawsuit filed on May 15, Elvis granddaughter Riley Keough, the trustee of the Promenade Trust, had claimed an entity named Naussany Investments & Private Lending LLC attempted to have Graceland sold off of a forged signature by her late mother Lisa Marie Presley that allowed the famed property to be held as collateral for a $3.8 million loan.
The complaint sought to block Naussany Investments from taking profits from the sale of Graceland.
“These documents are fraudulent,” Keough’s lawyer wrote in a lawsuit, according to the Associated Press. “Lisa Maria Presley never borrowed money from Naussany Investments and never gave a deed of trust to Naussany Investments.”
Keough was not present at Shelby County Chancery Court on Wednesday, People reported.
Elvis Presley Enterprises Inc. had said in a statement Monday that the attempted foreclosure and sale was fraudulent. “There is no foreclosure sale. Simply put, the counter lawsuit that has been filed is to stop the fraud,” said the corporate entity that runs Graceland to The Hollywood Reporter.
Priscilla Presley, the ex-wife to Elvis and Keough’s grandmother, had posted a photo of Graceland to her Instagram account on Monday with the graphic stating, “It’s a scam,” referring to the foreclosure sale.
Five years after Elvis Presley died in 1977, Graceland opened as a museum and tourist attraction in 1982 as a tribute to the singer and actor, drawing visitors in the hundreds of thousands annually.
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