Ruthless ‘Nigerian scammer’ allegedly takes credit for auction scare at Elvis Presley’s Graceland: ‘I had fun’
A self-proclaimed “Nigerian scammer” proudly took credit for the failed attempt to auction off Elvis Presley’s iconic Graceland mansion, which left his granddaughter Riley Keough “traumatized,” according to a report.
The ownership of the sprawling Memphis property was thrust into doubt earlier this month after a mysterious company named Naussany Investments and Private Lending LLC claimed the right to auction off Graceland — voted the most popular museum in America in 2023.
The company then attempted to auction off the home in a foreclosure sale.
A Memphis judge has since halted a planned foreclosure sale of the property, fearing possible forgery of the legal documents.
On Tuesday, the apparent mastermind behind the bizarre auction fraud scandal was unmasked by the New York Times.
The outlet reported that a person based in Nigeria with a Naussany-associated email address had reached out to it and taken credit for the ordeal.
The person in question said he and his team often scam the vulnerable and elderly, the outlet adds.
“We figure out how to steal,” the individual wrote to the NYT in Luganda, a language spoken in Uganda. “That’s what we do.”
“I had fun figuring this one out and it didn’t succeed very well,” they added.
The scandal has since caught the eyes of “interested” FBI officials, who considered launching a criminal probe and contacted Keough.
Naussany Investments and Private Lending LLC’s claim to the property states it had loaned $3.8 million to Lisa Marie Presley — Elvis’ only child — and she had offered Graceland as collateral before her death in January 2023.
A lawsuit filed by Lisa Marie’s eldest daughter, Keough, 34, stated the documents were a fraud, her mother’s signature on them was forged and the company itself was a “false entity” set up to defraud the estate.
Graceland has been a fixture in Memphis since Elvis bought the estate for $102,500 in 1957, the same year he released the hits “Blue Christmas” and “All Shook Up.”
Spanning 14 acres, the estate attracts a whopping 500,000 visitors annually.
Lisa Marie inherited it after Elvis’ death in 1977, and it opened to the public as a museum in 1982.
