MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Tennessee judge on Wednesday blocked a potential foreclosure sale of Graceland, the former home of Elvis Presley, after a company claimed his estate used the property as collateral on a loan that was never repaid, according to multiple reports.
A judge in Shelby County handed down the decision, the Daily Memphian reported. The temporary injunction halts a proposed auction scheduled for Thursday after Presley’s granddaughter, Riley Keough, sued to stop the sale, according to The Associated Press.
“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,” Chancellor Joe Dae Jenkins said, WREG-TV reported.
In a public notice published earlier this month in The Commercial Appeal, Missour-based Naussany Investments and Private Lending LLC said it planned to auction Graceland and its surrounding acreage to satisfy a $3.8 million loan that Elvis Presley’s daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, took out before her death in January 2023. The company said Lisa Marie Presley secured the loan in 2018 by signing a deed of trust for Graceland.
However, Jenkins said Wednesday that the authenticity of Lisa Marie Presley’s signature on the deed of trust was in question as the notary who supposedly certified the signature said in a sworn affidavit that she did not notarize it, according to WREG.
In a lawsuit filed by Keough on behalf of Promenade Trust, which controls the Graceland museum, Elvis Presley’s granddaughter accused Naussany Investments of presenting fraudulent documents about the loan last year, the AP reported. She said that there was no loan and that the company doesn’t exist, according to WMC-TV.
“Lisa Maria Presley never borrowed money from Naussany Investments and never gave a deed of trust to Naussany Investments,” an attorney for Keough wrote in the lawsuit, according to the AP.
Graceland opened to the public as a museum and tourist attraction in June 1982. It sees thousands of visitors each year.
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