• Lisa Findley sentenced to 57 months in federal prison for mail fraud related to Graceland.
• She falsely claimed Lisa Marie Presley owed money secured by Graceland.
• The attempted auction was halted by a judge following a lawsuit from Presley’s granddaughter.

A Missouri woman, Lisa Jeanine Findley, was sentenced on Tuesday to nearly five years in federal prison for her attempt to fraudulently auction off Elvis Presley’s Graceland estate. The sentencing took place in U.S. District Court in Memphis, where Judge John T. Fowlkes Jr. imposed a sentence of 57 months in prison along with three years of supervised probation. Prosecutors described Findley's actions as "brazen," detailing her conspiracy to extort money from the Presley family through fraudulent means, including forging signatures and documents, according to ABC News.

Findley, 54, of Kimberling City, Missouri, pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud in February related to her claims that Lisa Marie Presley owed $3.8 million to a non-existent lender called Naussany Investments. In exchange for dropping a more serious charge of aggravated identity theft, Findley admitted to the court that the allegations against her were true. Her scheme involved the fabrication of loan documents and a fraudulent foreclosure notice, leading to a planned auction of the estate in May 2024, which was eventually prevented by a judge, according to CBS News and Los Angeles Times.

During the proceedings, Judge Fowlkes highlighted the need for a substantial sentence to deter future crimes and acknowledged the potential consequences had the auction proceeded. The case unraveled when Riley Keough, Lisa Marie’s daughter, filed a lawsuit against the fraudulent attempts, leading to an injunction that stopped the auction based on evidence of forgery and deceit involving key documents and parties named in the scheme, as specified in the court filings. Experts found the attempt particularly confusing given the historic importance of Graceland, which serves as a major museum and tourist destination, according to Los Angeles Times.

Findley’s actions included not only pretending to be various individuals associated with her fictitious lending firm, but also generating fabricated emails that attempted to place the blame for the fraudulent activity on a supposed Nigerian identity theft ring after her scheme was exposed. Prosecutors argued that the sophistication of the fraud warranted a stern punishment, which Judge Fowlkes echoed, deeming the case a "highly sophisticated scheme to defraud" with significant implications for Elvis Presley’s estate, according to ABC News and CBS News.