Priscilla Presley sues alleged “con artist” for seven-figure sum

Priscilla Presley is suing four old business associates, citing financial elder abuse and fraud. She’s asking for damages of a minimum of $1 million in an attempt to regain control of her accounts.

This is the second lawsuit the Presley family have been wrapped up in in only a couple of months. Recently, there was a now infamous case where a Nigerian scammer infamously attempted to con Graceland out of their hands. However, this time, it is Priscilla at the centre of the dispute.

Presley’s suit claims the group of associates conned her out of $1 million, according to the complaint filed on July 18th, in Los Angeles. It also claims that the defendants, which includes Florida-based memorabilia auctioneer Brigitte Kruse, forced Presley “into a form of indentured servitude, where [she] was forced to work so that they could receive the lion’s share of any revenue that she was able to earn in the future.”

In particular, it goes after Kruse, calling her a “con-artist and pathological liar” and claiming she  “fraudulently induced” Presley into signing contracts that gave the defendants named in the lawsuit 80 per cent of her income. 

According to Presley’s suit, this was a planned and purposeful act set to scam her as an elderly person in need of emotional and financial support. The suit reads, “This action arises out of a meticulously planned and abhorrent scheme by the defendants in this action to prey on an older woman by gaining her trust, isolating her from the most important people in her life, and duping her into believing that they would take care of her — personally and financially — while their real goal was to drain her of every last penny she had.”

In a 45-page complaint, Presley claimed that Kruse “quickly immersed herself in Presley’s life” after meeting her in 2021, “often sending her multiple text messages a day, and telling her how much she loved her and admired her.” She claims that Kruse and her associates were trying to turn her against her old advisors and fabricated reasons for “massive payments they made to themselves from Presley’s bank accounts.”

The battle between Kruse and Presley has been going on for some time. Kruse previously sued Presley for breach of contract in Florida, claiming that the ex-wife of Elvis Presley illegally walked away from their business partnership in the wake of her daughter Lisa Marie Presley’s untimely death in 2023. 

The new suit says the aforementioned claim was a further attempt to control Presley and the narrative of this story. “When it became clear to the defendants that their scheme had been uncovered, they attempted to falsely portray themselves as the victims by filing a lawsuit against Presley in Florida in the name of several of the sham companies they established,” the new complaint states.

Regarding the new lawsuit, Kruse has yet to comment. “We cannot respond because counsel has not been served with a copy of the lawsuit. We have alerted Ms. Presley’s attorneys that we do not have a copy of this filing but they have not responded,” Kruse and her legal team told Rolling Stone.

Presley is asking for general damages at a minimum of $1 million, as well as punitive damages and attorney’s fees. She’s also demanding for all the “fraudulently-induced agreements” with the defendants to be severed so she can regain control of her accounts and obtain a “full accounting of their financial malfeasance.”

This is a developing story.

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