By Brad Brooks
(Reuters) – Tennessee’s attorney general said on Thursday that his office was investigating a company’s effort to auction off Graceland, singer Elvis Presley’s famed mansion in Memphis.
Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said in a statement that his office was investigating if any fraud was carried out by Naussany Investments & Private Lending, which on Wednesday abandoned its plan to auction Graceland.
“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 said. “My office has fought fraud against homeowners for decades, and there is no home in Tennessee more beloved than Graceland.”
A request for comment from Naussany Investments & Private Lending that was sent to an email address of a company representative listed in court documents was not immediately returned.
The company said on Wednesday that it was abandoning plans to auction off Graceland after a Tennessee judge blocked the sale following allegations of fraud.
Graceland, where Presley is buried, is a popular tourist attraction, drawing more than 600,000 visitors a year. Presley, dubbed the “King of Rock and Roll,” died in 1977 at age 42.
Naussany Investments had claimed that Presley’s daughter, Lisa Marie Presley – who died last year at age 54 – had used Graceland as collateral when borrowing $3.8 million that was never repaid, according to a public notice of the intended sale.
Presley’s granddaughter, actress Riley Keough, who inherited the home after her mother’s death, sued Naussany, asserting that her mother never took out the loan and that Naussany was engaged in fraud.
In a sworn affidavit attached to the lawsuit, the notary public listed on Naussany’s documents said she had never met Lisa Marie Presley or notarized her signature.
(Reporting by Brad Brooks in Longmont, Colorado; Editing by Leslie Adler)
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