Heavy Priscilla Presley has sued four associates, accusing them of elder abuse and financial fraud.
Actress and pop culture icon Priscilla Presley believes she’s the victim of elder abuse. On July 18, 2024, the Hallmark Channel alum sued several former business associates for $1 million, claiming they gained her trust and tried to “drain her of every last penny she had,” as first reported by TMZ.
Marty Singer, a lawyer for Presley, filed the suit in Los Angeles Superior Court, according to USA Today, against four of Presley’s past business partners, including auctioneer Brigitte Kruse, citing 12 different complaints, including financial elder abuse. According to the outlet, Presley, who was famously married to music legend Elvis Presley, has asked the court to keep the defendants from accessing her finances moving forward in addition to paying $1 million in damages.
Meanwhile, late on July 19, NBC News exclusively reported that Joel Weinshanker, who runs Graceland and is managing partner of Elvis Presley Enterprises, has raised red flags about Kruse, alleging that her auction house has made money on fraudulent Elvis memorabilia.
Priscilla Presley Claims 4 Associates Took Control of Her Finances After Convincing Her They’d ‘Take Care of Her’
GettyAustin Butler, who played Elvis Presley in “Elvis,” and Priscilla Presley at the 2022 Met Gala
Priscilla’s lawsuit alleges, according to Us Weekly, that former associates Brigitte Kruse, Kevin Fialko, Vahe Sislyan and Lynn Walker Wright “meticulously planned” to take advantage of “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.”
TMZ reported that the suit accuses Kruse of convincing Priscilla that her past financial advisors were either “deceitful or incompetent,” and to partner with her, Fialko, Sislyan and Wright. Priscilla alleged they then tricked her, according to TMZ’s review of the court documents, into signing new contracts, forming new companies, and letting those new associates receive 80% of her income.
Priscilla was left with minority shares in the companies they created using her name, image and likeness, TMZ said the suit claims. That includes the 2023 release of “Priscilla,” the Sofia Coppola-directed biopic, for which Priscilla claims her share of profits were “misappropriated,” per TMZ.
According to Us Weekly, the lawsuit claims that, over two years time, the group obtained “power of attorney, control over her family and personal trusts, and control over her bank accounts.” .
Priscilla Presley Calls Celebrity Memorabilia Auctioneer Brigitte Kruse a ‘Pathological Liar’
Priscilla’s lawsuit is particularly accusatory toward Kruse, per TMZ. A widely-known auctioneer of celebrity memorabilia, according to her LinkedIn profile, she was the first woman auctioneer published in the Guinness Book of World Records, in 2016, for conducting the “Largest Abandoned Personal Property Auction in World History.”
In addition to overseeing GWS Auctions, Kruse’s LinkedIn profile lists her as
Priscilla, who starred in Hallmark’s “Wedding at Graceland” and “Christmas at Graceland: Home for the Holidays,” said in her suit that the two met in 2021 when Kruse sold Elvis memorabilia through her auction house, per TMZ.
Priscilla called Kruse a “con artist and pathological liar” in court documents, per Us Weekly, claiming she aimed to take control of Priscilla’s finances and forced her into “a form of indentured servitude.” The lawsuit explained Priscilla would work but her associates would “receive the lion’s share of any revenue that she was able to earn in the future.”
On the afternoon of July 18, Kruse’s legal team issued a statement to TMZ that said, “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.”
The following day, on July 19, Weinshanker raised his own red flags in an interview with NBC News, accusing Kruse’s auction house of selling fraudulent items. His first concern came when he saw that GWS Auctions was purporting to have a one-of-a-kind Elvis jacket from 1972 available for auction. But Weinshanker knew that very jacket was hanging up in Graceland’s private collection, he told NBC.
Weinshanker has discovered other items, from a private jet to several pieces of jewelry, which GWS has auctioned off but, he claims, were not really Elvis’s. He said Graceland employees were also concerned when Priscilla initially endorsed, even signing letters of authenticity, GWS’s auctions of items that Elvis didn’t own while they were married.
He didn’t blame Priscilla, NBC reported, but instead said, “I believe that she lacked the capacity to make those decisions.”
In an interview with NBC News prior to Priscilla’s lawsuit filing, Kruse said she “100%” stood by her auction items and claimed that Weinshanker never reached out to her with his questions. But NBC said Weinshanker shared documentation with network reporters that show a related text exchange with Kruse on his concerns.
Kruse sued Priscilla in February, claiming she cut her out of lucrative deals, per NBC. The suit Priscilla filed on July 18 is a countersuit.
“I always wish the best for Priscilla and her entire family,” Kruse told NBC News before she was sued. “It’s a business dispute. They happen.”
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As Priscilla Presley Files Elder Abuse Lawsuit, Graceland Boss Raises Red Flags