The FBI is reportedly investigating the attempted “fraudulent” sale of Graceland, the former home and burial site of Elvis Presley.
Sources said TMZ that Graceland officials and people from the camp of Riley Keough, who is the sole administrator of his grandfather’s estate, have been in contact with the FBI.
The outlet reported that the agency is “interested” in launching a criminal investigation into the sale.
The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll’s Memphis property was due to be auctioned this week until Keough, 34, launched a legal bid to block the sale.
His attorney, Jeff Germany, told a court there are “serious and important allegations about the authenticity” of documents that allegedly show his late mother Lisa Marie Presley borrowed $3.8 million using Graceland as collateral.
Sources told TMZ that Graceland officials and people in Riley Keough’s camp, who is the sole administrator of her grandfather’s estate, have been in contact with the FBI.
The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll’s Memphis estate was set to be auctioned off this week until Keough, seen here, launched a legal bid to block the sale.
The alleged loan was obtained through a Missouri company called Naussany Investments and Private Lending.
Germany told the court he had had “no contact” with Nassauny, any lawyer acting on his behalf, or his alleged boss, Kurt Naussany.
That left a simple decision for Chancellor JoeDae Jenkins, who said it was in the “public interest” to maintain a temporary restraining order blocking the proposed 10 a.m. Thursday sale on the courthouse steps.
“The court will enjoin the sale as requested because the real property is considered unique under Tennessee law and, being unique, the loss of the real property would be considered irreparable harm,” he said at the 10-minute hearing.
The one-page fax signed by Gregory E. Naussany and received by the court today read: ‘I respectfully deny the allegations made by Danielle Riley Keough. I consider that the accusations made against Naussany Investments & Private Lending are unfounded.’
He said his firm was “prepared to provide evidence and arguments” in his defense when the matter comes to trial.
On Wednesday, mysterious lender Gregory Nassauny told DailyMail.com that the case was too complicated and that he had given up fighting for the mansion.
In response to an email sent to an address listed in court documents, a man claiming to be Nassauny told DailyMail.com he was “withdrawing all claims with prejudice.”
The King of Rock and Roll purchased the Graceland property in 1957 for $102,500, the same year he recorded a string of iconic hits, including ‘Blue Christmas’ and ‘All Shook Up’; seen in 1956
Attorney Jeff Germany addresses the media after a Shelby County judge temporarily blocked the sale of Graceland.
Because the deed of trust was not recorded and the loan was obtained in a different state, legal actions would have to be filed in multiple states and Naussany Investments & Private Lending will not be able to proceed,” he said in the email.
‘This arises from consultation with the company’s lawyers. There was no harm to Mrs Keough from her mother’s bad LMP habits and poor money management (sic)’.
When asked to clarify whether he was abandoning all efforts to reclaim the alleged $3.8 million he claims to have lent the late Lisa Marie Presley, Nassauny said in a follow-up: “According to the attorney, it’s in our best interest, since multiple presentations would have to be filed in 3 different states. The company will no longer comment.”
The legal skirmish comes after a foreclosure notice posted online on May 12 stated that Graceland and its 13-acre land would be auctioned off “to the highest and best bidder for cash.”
He claimed that Lisa Marie, Elvis’ daughter, had borrowed millions of dollars in 2015 from Naussany Investments & Private Lending, a firm that does not appear in any searches for corporations at the state or national level.
The dark team claimed that Lisa Marie, who died in January 2023, aged 54, defaulted on the loan.
Naussany intended to recoup the funds by selling Graceland, according to his note.
Ahead of Wednesday’s hearing, the Mad Max: Fury Road actress’ lawyers obtained a temporary restraining order to block the ‘non-judicial sale’, arguing that the alleged loan never occurred and that the documents were ‘forgeries.’
Keough’s lawsuit said Kurt Naussany had sent him numerous emails seeking to collect his mother’s alleged debt, attaching a standard promissory note and a 2018 deed of trust for Graceland, both with Lisa Marie’s signature.
In an accompanying affidavit, Kimberly Philbrick, a Duval County, Florida, notary whose name appears on both documents, insisted that she had “never met Lisa Marie nor notarized any documents for her.”
The wording of the trust deed also included an inconsistent reference to ‘online notarization’ that was not authorized in Florida or mentioned in Duval County paperwork until 2020, two years after the deed was supposedly drafted.
Elvis Presley strolls the grounds of his Graceland estate circa 1957
Fans line up outside Graceland in 2017, in Memphis, Tennessee
“While the documents bear signatures that resemble those of Lisa Marie Presley, Lisa Marie Presley did not actually sign the documents,” the lawsuit insists.
“The alleged promissory note and deed of trust are products of fraud and the persons who participated in the creation of said documents are believed to be guilty of the crime of forgery.”
This week’s legal drama marked the second time Keough has gone to court to establish herself as the owner of Graceland after a legal dispute in 2023 with her grandmother Priscilla Presley, 78, Elvis’ ex-wife.
They fought over a 2016 amendment to Lisa Marie’s will that removed Priscilla as trustee, but a judge ruled that the paperwork was legitimate and that Keough was the Suspicious Minds singer’s sole trustee.
Elvis purchased the eight-bedroom Graceland estate in 1957 for $102,500, the same year he released Jailhouse Rock, one of 18 No. 1 songs of his.
He and Priscilla had Lisa Marie nine months after their wedding day in 1967 and she spent her early years at her father’s sprawling compound.
Fans are seen visiting Lisa Marie’s grave and Graceland meditation pool during her funeral on January 22, 2023.
Riley’s lawsuit claims that her mother did not borrow money from the company and that her signatures on the deed are forgeries; (LR) Lisa, Priscilla Presley and Riley seen in 2022
Elvis and Priscilla divorced six years later, but Lisa Marie frequently returned to Memphis to stay and would eventually inherit Graceland after her father died there in 1977.
The property eventually became a profitable tourist attraction hosting a museum, $200 VIP tours and candlelight vigils to commemorate each anniversary of the rock and roll icon’s death, attracting 650,000 visitors annually and raising its value to $100 million. of dollars.
Lisa Marie sold 85 percent of the business portion of her father’s estate in 2005, but kept Graceland and his personal effects, turning its management over to an entertainment company.
Elvis, his parents, Lisa Marie, and son Benjamin Keough are buried at Graceland.
Benjamin took his own life in July 2020, at age 27, after a long battle with drug addiction and depression, echoing his mother’s troubled history of opioid abuse.