In his lifetime, Graceland was Elvis Presley's home. Since his death, it has become an American pop culture treasure, voted America's most popular museum in 2023, and the most-visited house in America after the White House. Over 600,000 people make the trek to Graceland each year. And this storied property, located at 3763 Elvis Presley Blvd., was almost fraudulently auctioned off earlier this month in what could have been one of the most high-profile examples of deed theft of all time.
Deed theft is a crime that gets outsized attention. The FBI doesn't keep specific statistics about deed theft, but according to the FBI’s 2022 Internet Crime Report, 11,727 individuals in the US were victims of real estate fraud. This type of fraud can encompass more than title forgery. Losses have been climbing and hit $400 million in 2022, up from $350 million in 2021. But when it strikes you or someone close — it doesn't feel infrequent or uncommon.
So how did it almost happen to Graceland? How did one of the most famous homes in America nearly become the victim of deed theft, and what did it take to stop the thieves?
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It's a story that involves a dubious and now possibly defunct investment company, Naussany Investments and Private Lending LLC, claiming that Elvis's daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, had defaulted on a $3.8 million loan secured by the King of Rock and Roll's castle in Memphis. It also, of late, is a story that has involved Nigerian identity thieves, and the F.B.I.
How the fraud was perpetrated
Elvis' only child, Lisa Marie Presley, died very suddenly last year and a battle over her estate soon followed. The contentious debate pitted Lisa Marie's mother, Priscilla Presley, against her daughter, actress Riley Keough. The dispute was ultimately settled out of court after a few months of wrangling and Keough was named the sole Trustee of her late mother’s estate.
But the debate about Lisa Marie Presley's estate and the media storm that surrounded it caught the attention of some dubious parties, leading to the attempted deed theft.
Last week news reports emerged that Graceland was being set to be sold at auction, catching everyone by surprise. The New York Post reported that "according to a notice from the Shelby County Courthouse, Graceland and its surrounding property are slated to be auctioned off for cash to the highest bidder on May 23." Naussany Investments had planned to hold a foreclosure auction for the famous estate by claiming that Lisa Marie Presley had offered the historic tourist attraction as collateral for the $3.8 million loan.
Needless to say, the notice of a pending auction attracted a lot of attention, including that of the FBI which, according to the Post, contacted Keough about launching an investigation. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) was also contacted, and those involved believe they know who was behind the fraudulent auction. How or why the TBI was confident it knew the players involved in the fraud is unclear.
The fraud quickly falls apart
The documents are fraudulent, according to the lawsuit filed by Riley Keough, Lisa Marie Presley's eldest daughter. She claims that her mother's signatures on the deed are forgeries, and that Naussany Investments was only created for the purpose of perpetrating the fraud, according to Memphis radio station WHNT.com. In an affidavit attached to Keough’s lawsuit, as per the Post, the notary public listed on Naussany’s documents said she never met Lisa Marie Presley or notarized her signature.
The notary's statement “brings in the question as to the authenticity of the signature” as well as whether the underlying document is fraudulent, said JoeDae L. Jenkins, Chancellor at the Shelby County Chancery Court, according to the Post article.
The sale was stopped by a temporary restraining order Monday, May 22. At an injunction hearing held on May 24, Chancellor Jenkins sided with Keough and issued the injunction that halted the sale scheduled for the next day. No representatives for Naussany Investments, the company that advertised the foreclosure sale, were in court on the 24th, according to News 3 in Memphis.
At this point, Naussany Investments withdrew its claims and the company's phones are no longer in service.
A surprise twist — someone claims credit for the scheme
The latest wrinkle in the still in-the-works story is the emergence of a self-professed Nigerian identity thief claiming credit for the criminal scheme. This unidentified individual responded to the New York Times from a Naussany-associated email address that the Times had found in court filings.
In the email to the Times, the alleged fraudster said that his identity theft ring preyed on the dead, the unsuspecting and the elderly, especially those from the states of Florida and California, using birth certificates and other identifying documents to discover personal information that aided in their schemes, wrote Matthew Stevens, general assignment reporter for the Times.
“We figure out how to steal,” the Nigerian thief said. “That’s what we do.”
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