A self-proclaimed "scammer" has owned up to trying to sell Elvis Presley's Graceland under false claims and a fraudulent identity.
Earlier this month, a company known as Naussany Investments & Private Lending LLC, contacted Promenade Trust, which controls the Memphis estate, stating that Presley’s daughter, Lisa Marie, borrowed $3.8 million from them. As repayment, they attempted to auction off the property in a foreclosure sale.
In response, the star's granddaughter, Riley Keough, who inherited Graceland after the death of her mother last year, sued the company on May 15, insisting that the sale documents featured forged signatures and that Naussany Investments were frauds and not a “real entity”.
In the 60-page suit, she wrote: "The purported note and deed of trust are products of fraud and those individuals who were involved in the creation of such documents are believed to be guilty of the crime of forgery."
On May 22, just one day before the sale would finalise, a Tennessee judge paused the auction in order to investigate Keough's case.
Earlier this week, The New York Times revealed that the culprit behind the incident was in fact a ‘scammer’ from Nigeria, who had proudly taken credit for the attempted sale.
The criminal additionally admitted in an email to the publication that their job is to "figure out how to steal", often from the vulnerable and elderly, and in this case, the dead. “That’s what we do," they added, before revealing that they took great enjoyment from their latest crime involving the Presley Estate.
"I had fun figuring this one out and it didn’t succeed very well,” they wrote.
Following the debacle, a spokesperson for Graceland has praised the judge’s decision to stop the sale, noting in a statement: “Graceland will continue to operate as it has for the past 42 years, ensuring that Elvis fans from around the world can continue to have a best in class experience when visiting his iconic home."
