A Missouri girl with an extended historical past of small-time scams and fraud was arrested Friday morning on federal costs in reference to a scheme to extort Elvis Presley’s household out of hundreds of thousands and steal their possession curiosity within the music legend’s former Memphis dwelling, Graceland, prosecutors introduced.
Lisa Jeanine Findley, who can be recognized by Lisa Holden and a slew of different aliases, 53, was charged with mail fraud and aggravated identification theft in a legal grievance unsealed Friday, prosecutors introduced.
Findley made her preliminary look Friday afternoon earlier than Justice of the Peace Choose David Rush at america Courthouse in Springfield, Missouri. She was appointed a public defender for the listening to that lasted simply seven minutes.
She waived her proper to a preliminary listening to or detention listening to and agreed to have these hearings happen within the prosecuting courtroom, the Western District of Tennessee. The federal government moved for detention and she or he was ordered to be eliminated to the Western District of Tennessee and stays in custody.
Prosecutors say she allegedly orchestrated a scheme for the fraudulent sale of Graceland. NBC Information was first to report in June on Findley’s connections to the Graceland plot, together with false identities, publish workplace containers, and telephone and fax numbers that appeared to hyperlink her to the scammers.
An individual with information of the scenario who requested to not be named described a chaotic scene, as Findley was arrested this morning at her Kimberling Metropolis dwelling with “at the least 15 cops” coming to execute a warrant.
An legal professional listed as illustration for Findley in courtroom paperwork didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon Friday. In a June interview in entrance of her dwelling, Findley denied any involvement or information of a rip-off involving Graceland. The web accounts linked to the Graceland plot related to Findley had been deleted quickly after that interview.
The Graceland scheme first turned public in Could after an organization with none data or proof that it existed in any respect, Naussany Investments, filed a courtroom declare that Lisa Marie Presley, Elvis’ solely little one — who died in January 2023 — owed hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in unpaid loans.
After Presley’s household didn’t pay, Naussany Investments tried to pressure a foreclosures sale of Graceland to gather. The case made worldwide headlines, however was quickly tossed by a Tennessee choose who discovered Naussany Investments’ paperwork had seemingly been solid. Somebody claiming to symbolize the scammers emailed media shops, together with NBC Information, saying a hoop of Nigerian identification thieves had been chargeable for the scheme.
NBC Information first linked Findley to the Graceland plot in a June investigation. A pretend Fb profile utilizing the identical title because the fabricated firm trying to pressure the Graceland foreclosures led to greater than half a dozen different hyperlinks: pretend emails and on-line opinions, publish workplace containers, and telephone and fax numbers, discovered via courtroom data, interviews, on-line sleuthing and on-the-ground reporting.
Rasheed Jeremy Carballo, a former acquaintance of Findley’s who testified earlier than a grand jury listening to testimony on the alleged rip-off, advised NBC Information in June that Findley had shared particulars with him a few deal involving Lisa Marie Presley’s home that will make hundreds of thousands.
As a part of the rip-off, Findley solid names, signatures, and notary seals to create pretend mortgage paperwork, in accordance with the charging paperwork.
Along with the hyperlinks reported by NBC Information in June, the grievance said FBI investigators discovered through phone and e-mail data that Findley had referred to as the Shelby County Register’s Workplace, the place the pretend Graceland deed was filed, and used burner emails linked to her telephone quantity to submit notices of the foreclosures to a Memphis newspaper. FBI investigators additionally reported financial institution data for the account quantity supplied for fee by Naussany Investments was really Findley’s private checking account.
Michael Kosnar contributed.