Woman charged with bid to defraud Elvis Presley’s family through Graceland sale

Graceland was Elvis Presley’s homeMark Humphrey/AP)

A woman has been arrested on charges alleging she orchestrated a scheme to conduct a fraudulent sale of Elvis Presley’s Graceland property in Memphis, the US justice department said on Friday.

Lisa Jeanine Findley, 53, of Kimberling City, Missouri, is accused of scheming to steal the Presley family’s ownership interest in Graceland, prosecutors said, falsely claiming that Presley’s daughter pledged the property as collateral for a loan she failed to pay before her death.

“As part of the brazen scheme, we allege that the defendant created numerous false documents and sought to extort a settlement from the Presley family,” said principal deputy assistant attorney general Nicole M Argentieri, head of the justice department’s criminal division.

A judge in May halted the foreclosure sale of the Memphis tourist attraction, saying Elvis Presley’s estate could be successful in arguing that a company’s attempt to auction Graceland was fraudulent.

The Tennessee attorney general’s office had been investigating the Graceland controversy, then confirmed in June that it handed the probe over to federal authorities.