Mysterious Ring Of Identity Thieves Claims Credit For Scheme To Fraudulently Auction Off Graceland

Posted by
image

Last week, Elvis Presley’s iconic Memphis mansion Graceland was scheduled to go up for auction to settle millions of unpaid debts taken out by the late Lisa Marie Presley. The only problem was, according to the Presley estate, no such loan was ever issued. Hollywood actress Riley Keough, Lisa Marie’s daughter and Elvis’ granddaughter, went to court last week to stop the sale from moving forward, arguing that the 2018 promissory note confirming the loan was fraudulent.

In court Wednesday, the judge paused the foreclosure sale until more information could be uncovered. After initially suggesting they’d build a legal case to push things forward, the company attempting to auction off Graceland, Naussany Investments & Private Lending LLC, withdrew its claims on the property by the end of the day, and a person claiming to be Gregory Naussany wrote to the Elvis Presley Enterprises affirming that they did not intend to go through with a sale. Now, people claiming to be involved with the mysterious company have been talking to the media.

After writing to the email address associated with Naussany in court documents, the New York Times got a response from someone claiming to be part of a ring of identity thieves operating on the dark web, a group that preyed on mostly dead and elderly people, especially from Florida and California, exploiting information obtained from birth certificates and other documents. “We figure out how to steal,” the person wrote. “That’s what we do.”

Documents proving the existence of the Naussany company have yet to emerge. Meanwhile, an email address supposedly connected to Kurt Naussany — who, again, might not be a real person — responded to an NBC News inquiry by claiming that he “should not be on any paperwork to do with Lisa Marie Presley” and, although he knew her for many years, “never did any loans for her” because those were handled by Gregory Naussany.

The writer contacting the Times claimed to be based in Nigeria. His message was written in Luganda, a Bantu language spoken in Uganda. But the court filings from Naussany were faxed from a toll-free number designed to serve North America. And although the court documents feature fluent English, the emails are written in broken Bantu, according to a translator consulted by the NYT. In his email, the self-professed identity thief ultimately conceded that Keough had outmaneuvered him: “She beat me at my own game.”