The mystery lender who tried to wrest Graceland from Elvis Presley’s granddaughter says he is giving up his fight after a court blocked his bid Wednesday.
Gregory Nassauny told DailyMail.com the case to gain control of the iconic Memphis mansion is too complicated as it involves three different states.
And he said he did not blame Riley Keough for the ‘mismanagement’ of her late mother Lisa Marie Presley.
Nassauny had bid to have Graceland auctioned off on Thursday but was thwarted in Chancery Court in Memphis by Chancellor JoeDae Jenkins. He had claimed Lisa Marie, who died in 2023, had borrowed millions of dollars in 2015.
In response to an email sent to an address on the court papers, a man purporting to be Nassauny told DailyMail.com said he was ‘withdrawing all claims with prejudice.’
The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll’s treasured Memphis estate was set to go under the hammer this week
Elvis’s granddaughter, actress Riley Keough, 34, challenged the sale with a lawsuit, claiming it is ‘fraudulent’
‘Due to the deed of trust not being recorded and the loan being obtained in different state, legal action would have to be filed in multiple states and Naussany Investments & Private Lending will not acquire to proceed,’ he said in the email.
‘That comes from consultation of the lawyers for the company. There was no harm meant on Ms. Keough for her mothers LMP mis habits and mis managing of money (sic).’
Asked to clarify whether he was abandoning all efforts to pursue the supposed $3.8 million he claims to have loaned the late Lisa Marie Presley, Nassauny said in a follow up: ‘Per counsel it’s in the best interest as multiple filings would have to be filed in 3 different states.
Riley Keough’s lawyer Jeff Germany did not comment when asked if he would be referring the matter to law enforcement
‘The company will no longer comment.’
Riley Keough’s lawyer Jeff Germany did not comment when asked if he would be referring the matter to law enforcement but DailyMail.com understands his firm will ask the Tennessee Attorney General to investigate further.
Germany told the court there are ‘significant serious allegations regarding the authenticity’ of documents supposedly showing that Lisa Marie had borrowed $3.8million using Graceland as collateral.
The fishy papers produced by mysterious Missouri-based firm Naussany Investments include a deed of trust notarized by a Florida official who said in an affidavit that she had never met Lisa Marie or witnessed her signing anything.
‘We’ve provided the affidavit of the notary in exhibit two to the complaint, which swears that the purported notary on the purported deed of trust was never notarized by the notary whose seal appears on the document,’ Germany explained.
His version of events went completely unchallenged – because nobody for Naussany showed up to Shelby County Chancery Court to argue against him.
In fact, Germany told the court he had had ‘no contact’ whatsoever with Nassauny, any lawyers acting on its behalf, or from its supposed boss Kurt Naussany. It is not known what relationship Kurt and Gregory Nassauny have.
That left it a straightforward decision for Chancellor Jenkins who said it was in the ‘public interest’ to uphold a temporary restraining order blocking the proposed Thursday 10am sale on the steps of the courthouse.
‘The court will enjoin the sale as requested because the real estate is considered unique under Tennessee law and, in being unique, the loss of the real estate would be considered irreparable harm,’ he told the ten-minute hearing.
The one-page fax signed by Gregory E. Naussany and received by the court today, said: ‘I respectfully deny the allegations made by Danielle Riley Keough … I believe the claims made against Naussany Investments & Private Lending are unfounded’
Attorney, Jeff Germany, addresses the media after a Shelby County Judge temporarily blocks the sale of Graceland
Graceland, the former home and burial site of the legendary Elvis Presley, was set to be sold off at a foreclosure auction this Thursday
A temporary restraining order on the sale was issued on Monday
Graceland, which is toured by 600,000 people every year making it the second most visited US residence after the White House, is ‘well-loved in this community and, indeed, around the world’, he added.
The legal skirmish comes after a foreclosure notice published online on May 12 declared that Graceland and its 13-acre grounds would be auctioned off ‘to the highest and best bidder for cash.’
It claimed that Lisa Marie, Elvis’s daughter, had borrowed millions of dollars in 2015 from Naussany Investments & Private Lending, a firm that doesn’t appear in any state or nationwide corporation searches.
The shadowy outfit claimed that Lisa Marie, who died in January 2023, aged 54, defaulted on the loan.
Naussany intended to claw back the funds by selling off Graceland, its note said.
Prior to Wednesday’s hearing, lawyers for the Mad Max: Fury Road actress obtained a temporary restraining order to block the ‘non-judicial sale’, arguing that the supposed loan never happened and the documents were ‘forgeries’.
Keough’s suit said Kurt Naussany had sent her numerous emails seeking to collect on her mom’s supposed debt, attaching a standard promissory note and a 2018 deed of trust for Graceland, both bearing Lisa Marie’s signature.
In an accompanying affidavit, Kimberly Philbrick, a notary based in Duval County, Florida, whose name appears on both documents, insisted she had ‘never met Lisa Marie nor notarized any document for her.’
The wording on the deed of trust also included an incongruous reference to ‘online notarization’ which wasn’t authorized in Florida or mentioned in Duval County paperwork until 2020 – two years after the deed was supposedly drawn up.
‘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 suit insisted.
‘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.’
Documents sent via mail by Naussany included the return address of a UPS store in Jacksonville. A Missouri address was, likewise, a PO Box.
When DailyMail.com rang the phone number listed in Kurt Naussany’s contact details the line was not in service.
The Associated Press said it had reached him via email only to be referred to Gregory Naussany, who responded: ‘The attorneys can make comment!’.
Chancellor Jenkins told Wednesday’s hearing that his office had received an overnight application from someone calling himself Gregory Naussany asking for an extension of time.
‘It appears to be a one-page facsimile,’ he told the proceedings: ‘The court will deny the request.’
Riley’s lawsuit claims her mother did not borrow money from the company, and that her signatures on the deed are forgeries; (L-R) Lisa, Priscilla Presley, and Riley seen in 2022
The 13.8-acre property in Memphis attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors every year, as people remember one of America’s most impactful musicians
This week’s legal drama marked the second time Keough has gone to court to establish herself as Graceland’s owner after a 2023 legal spat with her grandmother Priscilla Presley, 78, Elvis’s ex-wife.
They tussled over a 2016 amendment to Lisa Marie’s will that removed Priscilla as a trustee but a judge ruled the paperwork was legit and that Keough was the Suspicious Minds crooner’s sole trustee.
Elvis bought the eight-bed Graceland estate in 1957 for $102,500, the same year he released Jailhouse Rock, one of 18 songs of his that went to number one.
He and Priscilla had Lisa Marie nine months to the day after their 1967 wedding and she spent her earliest years at her father’s sprawling compound.
Elvis and Priscilla divorced six years later but Lisa Marie frequently returned to Memphis to stay and eventually inherited Graceland after her dad died there in 1977.
The property was eventually turned into a money-spinning tourist attraction hosting a museum, $200 VIP tours and candlelit vigils to mark each anniversary of the rock and roll icon’s death, attracting 650,000 visitors annually and soaring in value to $100 million.
Lisa Marie sold off 85 percent of the business side of her father’s estate in 2005 but kept Graceland itself along with her his personal effects, turning its management over to an entertainment company.
Elvis, his parents, Lisa Marie, and her son Benjamin Keough are all interred at Graceland.
Benjamin took his own life in July 2020 at age 27 following a lengthy battle with drug addiction and depression, echoing his mother’s troubled history of opioid abuse.