CNN
—
In one more twist within the bizarre story of the doubtful foreclosures menace towards Elvis Presley’s iconic Memphis dwelling, an individual purporting to be concerned in a scheme to steal Graceland responded to an e-mail from CNN, claiming duty for the rip-off.
“I didn’t win this one. I’ve stole (sic) many identities and obtained monies, we don’t win all,” wrote the self-proclaimed scammer in a mix of English and Luganda, a language spoken by greater than 5 million folks primarily in Uganda, according to the United Nations.
As with all scammers, it’s unclear whether or not the one who emailed CNN is definitely behind the scheme. However they responded to a CNN request for remark despatched to an e-mail handle related to Naussany Investments and Non-public Lending, an organization that tried to foreclose on the famous mansion final week.
Graceland was set to go up for public sale below the pretext that the late singer’s daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, who died in 2023, didn’t pay again a $3.8 million mortgage she’d secured from Naussany Investments earlier than her passing, and had used Graceland as collateral, in response to courtroom paperwork.
However actress Riley Keough, Elvis’ granddaughter and inheritor, sued to guard the property from the public sale block, alleging fraud and saying Naussany didn’t exist and had no rights to the property.
The foreclosures sale was ultimately blocked, and Naussany Investments dropped its foreclosures efforts.
CNN reached out to the e-mail handle listed as the corporate consultant in Keough’s lawsuit for remark. That individual mentioned his firm had no claims towards anybody affiliated with Graceland and directed CNN to a unique e-mail handle – gregoryenaussanyniplflorida@hotmail.com – supposedly belonging to an individual named Gregory Naussany, who responded when contacted by CNN.
Different information retailers, together with the New York Times, which first reported on the alleged scammer’s admission Tuesday, obtained comparable messages from the identical e-mail handle.
A Luganda-speaking native translated and reviewed the e-mail for CNN. When requested whether or not the self-proclaimed scammer seemed to be a local speaker or was maybe utilizing a device like Google Translate to pose as one, the translator discovered that whereas the obvious scammer knew the language, their writing fashion confirmed they weren’t completely fluent.
CNN has been unable to seek out any proof to show the corporate truly exists.
The telephone quantity listed in courtroom paperwork was not in service. The enterprise was listed in a courtroom doc as being situated in Kimberling Metropolis, Missouri. However the secretary of state had no document of a enterprise by that title when contacted by CNN.
The Shelby County Registrar instructed CNN in an e-mail that “Naussany Investments & Non-public Lending, LLC, doesn’t have any filings within the Workplace of the Shelby County Register of Deeds pertaining to Graceland/Elvis Presley.”
The self-identified scammer instructed the New York Occasions they’re primarily based in Nigeria and focused teams together with the useless and aged. They particularly went after victims in Florida and California, utilizing delicate paperwork like delivery certificates to facilitate their schemes, in response to the Occasions article.
“We use innocents and we steal id,” mentioned the scammer in an e-mail to CNN.
What would lead a scammer to go after the second most visited residence within the US behind the White Home stays unknown.
“We determine how one can steal,” the scammer instructed the Occasions. “That’s what we do.”
It was a mistake to focus on Graceland, mentioned Mark Sunderman, an actual property professor on the College of Memphis.
“Why they went after such a high-profile piece of property, that was simply very silly,” he mentioned. “, when it comes to Memphis, I can’t consider something extra excessive profile aside from in the event that they tried to go after the Civil Rights Museum.”
Courtroom paperwork present Naussany Investments provided to settle its claimed debt with the Presley property for $2.85 million, a discount of $950,000 from the unique mortgage. Sunderman believes that fast payoff could have been the scammer’s objective, not a profitable foreclosures on Graceland.
“If they’d gone by means of the foreclosures sale, they’d have had a lot, a lot higher danger to get caught and had much less payoff to them in the long term,” he mentioned.
Tennessee Legal professional Basic Jonathan Skrmetti final Thursday mentioned he was wanting into attainable fraud involving the matter.
The Shelby County District Legal professional didn’t reply to CNN’s request for touch upon any attainable prison case.