Missouri woman sentenced for trying to steal Graceland from Elvis Presley's family

Sept 24 (Reuters) - A Missouri woman was sentenced to nearly five years in prison for scheming to defraud the family of singer Elvis Presley of millions of dollars and steal their ownership interest in Presley's iconic Graceland estate, the Department of Justice said on Wednesday.

The department said in a written statement that U.S. District Court Judge John Fowlkes in Memphis sentenced Lisa Jeanine Findley, 54, to four years and nine months in federal prison on Tuesday. Findley, who had faced up to 20 years in prison, pleaded guilty to mail fraud in February.

Findley organized a scheme to conduct a fraudulent sale of Graceland - Presley's former home which was opened to the public in 1982 and is designated as a National Historic Landmark - by falsely claiming Presley's daughter, Lisa Marie, had pledged the estate as collateral for a non-existent $3.8 million loan that she failed to repay before her death in 2023, the department has said.

Elvis Presley died in 1977 at the age of 42 and is buried on the grounds of Graceland.

Findley, who used a fake company, forged documents and false court filings to carry out the scheme, threatened to foreclose the property and auction it to the highest bidder if the Presley family did not pay the claim against the estate, according to the department.

Lisa Marie's daughter, Riley Keough, who inherited the estate after her mother's death, sued Naussany Investments, the company Findley used in her attempt to auction Graceland, saying her mother had never taken out the loan and that Naussany was engaged in fraud.

The sale was blocked by a judge, which led Naussany last May to withdraw all claims to the property, a popular tourist attraction that draws more than 600,000 visitors a year.