How the Memphis Graceland foreclosure case unfolded, and the woman behind it: a timeline
Graceland up for auction — it's a surreal scenario that almost happened.
Yet, as wild as a public bidding process on the world-famous home of Elvis Presley sounds, the year-long scam attempt that got it to that point is just as baffling, even more so when one considers the scam has roots in four different states, ties to an alleged Nigerian Prince, more than a half dozen aliases attached to it and one of the most famous sections of real estate in the world.
The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee will hear a probable cause and detention hearing Friday in U.S.A. versus Lisa Jeanine Findley, who was arrested Aug. 16 and charged with mail fraud and aggravated identity theft in connection with the Graceland foreclosure scheme.
Allegedly orchestrated by Findley, the Graceland scheme began in July 2023, according to an affidavit filed by Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Agent Chris Townsend. He led the investigation into Findley and seven aliases she allegedly used in association with scams, including the fraudulent Naussany Investments and Private Lending.
News of a possible Graceland foreclosure sale broke in May.
A trio of weekly notices, published May 5-19 in The Commercial Appeal, advertised a public auction of the world-renowned estate. The sale was blocked by Shelby County Chancery Court Chancellor JoeDae Jenkins on May 22.
The whole sequence of events started when Kurt Naussanny, of Nassuany Investments and Private Lending, claimed that Lisa Marie Presley failed to repay a $3.8 million loan she secured through the company on May 16, 2018, using Graceland as collateral. Lisa Marie Presley died in January 2023. Her daughter, Riley Keough, inherited the estate via The Promenade Trust in May 2023. Keough, represented by Memphis-based law firm Morton & Germany, filed the lawsuit that inevitably stopped the sale.
But the story of how Graceland came within days of going up for public auction dates back more than a year.
How it all got started
Kurt Naussany was born on July 14, 2023, best investigators can tell. That's when his email address "[email protected]," used by the alias and c-suite executive with Naussany Investments and Private Lending LLC, was created.
It was also the time Keough's legal team first received information regarding an outstanding debt and had 10 days to respond, according to the affidavit.
Two weeks later, a creditor's claim was mailed from Kimberling City, Missouri to Lisa Marie Presley's business manager in California. The claim appeared to be filed in California Superior Court and included a promissory note from 2018 regarding the $3.8 million loan and a deed of trust, both allegedly signed by Lisa Marie Presley and notarized in Florida (more on that later). The claim proposed a settlement worth $2,850,000, or 75% of the borrowed loan amount, according to the affidavit.
Other than Naussany, several other aliases were outlined in the affidavit, many of them associated with Findley.
They are:
Lisa Holden
Lisa Howell
Gregory Naussany
Kurt Naussany
Lisa Jeanine Sullins
Carolyn Williams
Findley was arrested in Missouri and hails from Kimberling City. The initial lawsuit, filed by Keough, highlighted three addresses for Naussany Investments or affiliated companies, one of which was located in Kimberling City. Two of the addresses were P.O. boxes and the third, in Jacksonville, Florida, was a United States Postal Service branch location.
In June, NBC News reported on a grandmother in Branson, Missouri (about 30 minutes East of Kimberling City) by the name of Lisa Holden, who was affiliated with the name "Naussany" and had a history of con work and forgeries.
In the countersuit filed by Keough's legal team, the lawsuit claimed the deed of trust and notarized signature of Lisa Marie Presley were falsified. The documents were allegedly notarized by a Kimberly Philbrick in Jacksonville, Florida. The countersuit included a statement from Philbrick, who said she did not notarize the documents nor had she ever met Lisa Marie Presley.
On Aug. 12, ABC News reported they'd interviewed Philbrick, who said she was also a victim of identity theft and is not a resident of Jacksonville.
In September 2023, a false creditor's claim was filed with the California Superior Court under the guise of "Carolyn Williams," regarding a $2.85 million settlement. In November 2023, a P.O. Box was assigned for NIPL LLC. The mailing address was registered in Hollister, Missouri, about five minutes from Branson. In December 2023, "Carolyn Williams" called the Shelby County Register's Office about deeds.
On Dec. 19, 2023, "Williams" sent a promissory note and deed of trust with the NIPL LCC mailing address on it (document was included in the countersuit) and contacted the register's office via email several times, according to the affidavit.
Listed Naussany Investment addresses in the countersuit
Naussany Investments | 1601-1 N. Main St., Jacksonville, Florida (USPS branch site)
NIPL LLC/Collections Department | P.O. Box 1015, 1980 Business 65, Hollister, Missouri
Naussany Investments & Private Lending LLC | P.O. Box 514, Kimberling City, Missouri
From Missouri to Jacksonville
When the news first broke about the Graceland foreclosure sale, Williams and Kurt Naussany were the two names affiliated with Naussany Investments. The name Gregory Naussany did not appear until the May 22 court date in Shelby County Chancery Court.
Gregory Naussany, of Jacksonville, Florida, filed a request to delay the hearing on the morning of May 22. That request was denied.
After the hearing, Gregory Naussany, and the emails associated with him, became a focal point in the case. In May 2023, Gregory Naussany emailed The Commercial Appeal. The missive, which was riddled with grammatical errors, claimed that the company would be withdrawing all claims regarding the debt.
Gregory Naussany sent a follow-up email to The Commercial Appeal, claiming that Kurt Naussany was not affiliated with Naussany Investments and Private Lending and had not been since 2015.
On May 25, The Commercial Appeal received an email from an address associated with Kurt Naussany. Written in Spanish, the email claimed that its author was the "Yahoo Ring Leader of Nigeria" and that the Graceland claims were attempted scams. The email signature in the note contained contact information for a Hotmail email address associated with Gregory Naussany.
On May 28, the New York Times reported receiving a similar letter written in Luganda, a Bantu language spoken in Uganda. Other media outlets, including The Daily Memphian, also received emails from the same account with differing details written in various languages.
The Hotmail address associated with Gregory Naussany was created on May 21, 2024. Paperwork for creating the business entity known as "Naussany Investments and Private Lending, LLC" was formally filed with the Florida Department of State at that same time, according to the affidavit.
The initial public notice advertisement for the Graceland foreclosure sale, which ran in The Commercial Appeal on May 5, May 12 and May 19, was submitted by the email account "[email protected]." The account is associated with a phone number belonging to a "Lisa Holden," according to the affidavit.
The Commercial Appeal's parent company, Gannett, helped provide information to the FBI's investigation, according to the affidavit.
The initial name and address associated with the advertisement was for a "Jason Oropeza," who resides in Hemet, California. The address was a P.O. box and the phone number had an Orange County area code, according to account records for the advertisement.
Who is Lisa Jeanine Findley?
Findley previously lived in Cleveland, Oklahoma and was married to a Steve Sullins, records show.
The couple filed for bankruptcy in June 1998 and again in February 2000 before they divorced in 2002, according to court records.
Findley was previously charged and found guilty of falsifying social security numbers to obtain thousands of dollars in loans between May 2002 and October 2004. In that time span, she falsified checks worth more than $194,000 to banks in Tulsa, Oklahoma and Roswell, Georgia, according to court records.
A Lisa Jeanine Findley with birth date in 1971 was arrested in California and later found guilty on charges of fraud and embezzlement in March 2006, according to court records obtained via Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER).
In February 2006, Findley (and the aliases "Lisa Jeanine Sullins" and "Lisa Holden") was charged with bank fraud in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma. She was sentenced to 20 months in prison on Oct. 30, 2006 and a five-year supervised release, beginning on June 2, 2008. Her supervision was revoked after a conviction in Oklahoma for forged documents. She was then sentenced to 12 months in prison followed by a 48-month supervised release, beginning on Oct. 31, 2011.
During that release term, Findley reportedly committed violations in July 2014, where she forged four checks worth $5,150 to Todd Porter. The checks were returned to the bank due to insufficient funds. Findley began a romantic relationship with Porter, who loaned Findley money to purchase property, according to testimony from her then-probation officer Alton Livingston.
Findley violated supervision repeatedly, including traveling to Kansas without permission between July 27, 2012 and July 22, 2014; and again on Sept. 26, 2014. The July 2012 to 2014 incidents involved traveling to see a romantic partner she met through chemistry.com, and in Sept. 2014, she was accompanied by Todd Porter to pick up his granddaughter, according to a report from Livingston.
The violations continued with Findley's failure to notify her probation officer of relocation.
According to court records, she moved 11 times between Oct. 31, 2011 and October 2014.
Findley has lived in several Oklahoma cities, including Pawnee, Cleveland, Perry, Stillwater, Tulsa, Sand Springs, Claremore and Tulsa, documents show.
Commercial Appeal reporter Lucas Finton contributed to this report.
Neil Strebig is a journalist with The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at [email protected], 901-426-0679 or via X/Twitter,@neilStrebig.
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Inside the Memphis Graceland foreclosure case and how it unfolded
