An alleged dark web ringleader and identity thief is claiming to be behind the mysterious attempted foreclosure auction of Elvis Presley’s Graceland, according to emails to The New York Times.
“We figure out how to steal,” the unknown writer said in one bombshell message to The Times. “That’s what we do.”
The writer, a self-described leader of a group of “worms” that steal from the deceased and elderly through birth certificates and other documents, told the outlet that his ring’s latest target was the estate of Lisa Marie Presley. Last January, Lisa Marie’s daughter, actress Riley Keough, was named heir to Elvis’ estate after her mother’s death. About eight months later, a company called Naussany Investments & Private Lending LLC presented documents that purported to show they had loaned Lisa Marie $3.8 million and that she had listed the iconic home as collateral.
Last Sunday, the purported company took out an ad in the Memphis newspaper The Commercial Appeal, notifying of their plans to auction Graceland in a foreclosure sale.
To stop the sale, Keough filed a lawsuit alleging Naussany Investments & Private Lending LLC used “fraudulent” documents to stake a claim on the iconic property. The lawsuit alleged Kurt Naussany claimed to represent the creditor and sent Keough’s lawyers “numerous emails seeking to collect the purported $3.8 million debt and threatening to conduct a non-judicial sale of Graceland.” The company also allegedly presented a deed of trust with Lisa Marie’s signature.
Keough’s attorneys, however, said that Elvis’ daughter never took out the loan in the first place and that Naussany Investments is “not a real entity,” the lawsuit alleges. It added that Keough “did not give a deed of trust to Graceland” or any other property to Naussany Investments & Private Lending LLC.
“While the documents bear signatures that look like the signatures of Lisa Marie Presley, Lisa Marie Presley did not in fact sign the documents,” the lawsuit said, noting that a Florida notary also “confirmed she has never met Lisa Marie Presley nor notarized any document for her.”
The Times reported that on Friday, it received an email response from an address that Naussany Investments & Private Lending LLC listed in a Tennessee court filing about the case. In a series of emails, the writer confirmed his group’s effort to shut down Graceland as a scam.
“I had fun figuring this one out and it didn’t succeed very well,” said the writer, who claimed to be from Nigeria and wrote the email in Bantu.
The Times reported that the email address was faxed from a North American toll-free number and included documents sent to the local courthouse where the pending foreclosure is stalled after a Tennessee judge agreed at a hearing last week to delay the sale.
While nobody represented the company at the hearing, the court received a filing from a proposed representative named Gregory E. Naussany. The filing disputed Keough’s lawsuit and asked for more time to mount a defense. It also included the same Hotmail email address.
The Associated Press reported receiving an email that the company is withdrawing its Graceland claim. NBC News also reported that it received emails from others claiming to have ties to the company.
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said his office is looking into the attempted auction to “determine the full extent of any misconduct that may have occurred, and identify what we can do to protect both Elvis Presley’s heirs and anyone else who may be similarly threatened.”
“Graceland is one of the most iconic landmarks in the State of Tennessee, and the Presley family have generously shared it with the world since Elvis’s passing,” Skrmetti added in a statement last week. “My office has fought fraud against homeowners for decades, and there is no home in Tennessee more beloved than Graceland.”
In their emails to the Times, the writer did not offer any further clarification or explanation about taking credit for the alleged scam.
“I am the one who creates trouble,” they wrote.
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