The historic Graceland estate in Memphis has been liked to a potential foreclosure auction.
On Monday, an injunction was filed to delay and dispute that foreclosure as a potential fraud case.
At the heart of the dispute: Naussany Investments and Private Lending claims Graceland was used as collateral in a loan that the late Lisa Marie Presley failed to pay back. Naussany alleges Promenade Trust, which manages the Graceland estate, owes $3.8 million.
The latest:Court blocks sale of Elvis' Graceland estate in foreclosure auction
ThePresley family has filed a lawsuitdisputing the claims and says the Naussany documents pertaining to the loan are fraudulent.
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Elvis Presley purchased Graceland, which included the house, barn and 13.8 acres of land, for $102,500 in March 1957. The property and mansion would be Presley's primary residence up until his death in August 1977. Graceland opened to the public in June 1982. Today, it is said to be America's most visited home, after the White House, and welcomes about 600,000 visitors a year, from around the world. Elvis and other members of his family are interred in the Meditation Garden there, including the Presley's daughter,Lisa Marie Presley.
While much is known about the Presleys and Graceland, little is known about Naussany. Here's what we've been able to find.
For starters, Naussany doesn't have a physical address per documents included in the lawsuit filed by Riley Keough, Lisa Marie Presley's daughter. The business is listed with two P.O. boxes, one in Hollister, Missouri, for a collections department associated with Naussany Investments. The other is located in Kimberling City, Missouri. A third address is provided in Jacksonville, Florida, without a direct P.O. Box, but the address listed is the location of a United States Postal Service branch office.
Listed Naussany Investment addresses in the countersuit
- Naussany Investments | 1601-1 N. Main St., Jacksonville, Florida (USPS branch site)
- NIPL LLC/Collections Department | P.O. Box 1015, 1980 Business 65, Hollister, Missouri
- Naussany Investments & Private Lending LLC | P.O. Box 514, Kimberling City, Missouri
Kurt Naussany, who is listed as a defendant in the case, has two addresses listed in the lawsuit, the aforementioned Kimberling City one and an unspecified Jacksonville, Florida, location provided in an email signature. That email signature also provides an out-of-service phone number for Naussany along with an email address. The Commercial Appeal has not received any response back from the email listed for Kurt Naussany.
A second member of Naussany Investments is mentioned in a collection claim as Carolyn Williams, senior collection officer for NIPL LLC/Collections Department. Williams is also mentioned in a letter from Jeff Germany of Memphis-based Morton and Germany. That letter also included an email address for Carolyn Williams. The email address provided has three "Ls" instead of two for LLC. The Commercial Appeal emailed two accounts for Carolyn Williams one with the listed "lllc" and one with it spelled correctly, the correctly spelled one was returned back and no answer has been received from the other.
Germany is representing Keough, who inherited the Graceland estate under the Promenade Trust after her mother Lisa Marie Presley died in 2023. Germany said he has not received any returned communication back from Naussany Investments or Kurt Naussany.
On Monday, NBC News reportedly spoke to Kurt Naussany via email. According to the NBC News report, Naussany claims he left the investment firm in 2015. One of the documents attached in the lawsuit show an email allegedly signed by Kurt Naussany dated July 20, 2023.
A Google search for both the company and Kurt Naussany provides little, aside from media coverage regarding the case. No brick-and-mortar address for the firm nor any LinkedIn profiles for either the firm or Kurt Naussany exist. A LexisNexis search for the name "Kurt Naussany" provided no results for any persons by that name nationwide.
Multiple public notices for a foreclosure sale on the Memphis estate were posted this month. The public auction was scheduled for Thursday, May 23, at the Shelby County Courthouse in Memphis, however, a temporary restraining order was issued by Keough's legal team. An injunction hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m. Wednesday, May 22, at Shelby County Chancery Court in Memphis.
Commercial Appeal reporter Lucas Finton contributed to this report.
Neil Strebig is a journalist with The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached atneil.strebig@commercialappeal.com, 901-426-0679or via X/Twitter,@neilStrebig.
