Priscilla Presley has been sued by the former business associates she accused of elder abuse.
- READ MORE: Sofia Coppola on baring Elvis’ ugly side in ‘Priscilla’: “I never wanted him to be a villain”
The former wife of Elvis Presley filed a complaint last July, which claims her ex-associates had conned her out of over $1million.
The lawsuit accuses Florida-based memorabilia auctioneer Brigitte Kruse as well as Kevin Fialko, Vahe Sislyan and Lynn Walker Wright of crookedly convincing her to give them power over her and then abusing that control in efforts to steal her money.
Now, Presley’s former business partners are expanding their legal war, filing a $50million fraud and breach of contract lawsuit against her in Beverly Hills.
Kruse and Fialko filed the lawsuit on Monday (August 11), alleging that Presley hastened her daughter Lisa Marie Presley’s tragic death in January 2023 for financial gain. It also adds Stan Lee’s ex-manager, Keya Morgan, as a new co-defendant tied to claims that he interfered with the partners’ contracts with Priscilla.
Lisa Marie Presley died in 2023 at the age of 54, after an emergency admission to the hospital. While her death was initially thought to be caused by cardiac arrest, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner’s Office later confirmed that Presley died from a “sequelae of a small bowel obstruction”, or an intestinal obstruction that constricted blood supply to her digestive tract.
The complaint filed on Monday attaches Lisa Marie’s advanced health care directive as an exhibit. On the document, Lisa Marie wrote her initials and two exclamation points next to the line that said she wanted her life to be “prolonged as long as possible within the limits of generally accepted healthcare standards.”
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In the new lawsuit, Kruse and Fialko allege that Priscilla rushed to West Hills Hospital and took control of her daughter’s care. “Despite Lisa’s clear directive to ‘prolong her life,’ Priscilla pulled the plug within hours of Lisa being admitted, and before her granddaughter, Riley [Keough] was able to get to the hospital,” the lawsuit alleges.
The complaint says Priscilla then demanded that Kruse issue a media statement announcing the death. According to the complaint, “Priscilla knew that Lisa’s death neutralised the threat of Lisa’s efforts to have Priscilla removed as the sole trustee of Lisa’s irrevocable life insurance trust, and Priscilla ultimately wanted to control the Promenade Trust and Graceland.”
In a statement, Presley’s lawyer, Marty Singer, dismissed the new lawsuit as “one of the most shameful, ridiculous, salacious, and meritless lawsuits I have seen in my practice,” as per Rolling Stone.
“Accusing a grieving mother of contributing to her daughter’s death is not savvy advocacy; it is malicious character assassination and should be broadly condemned. These fabricated claims have absolutely no validity and we are confident this case will be dismissed,” Singer continued.
He went on to call the lawsuit a “sad and vicious attempt to falsely tarnish the reputation of an 80-year-old woman in blatant retaliation for bringing a lawsuit to redress the wrongful conduct of Brigitte Kruse, Kevin Fialko, and their coconspirators.”
According to the complaint, Kruse and Fialko allege that after Lisa Marie’s death, Priscilla walked out on a series of companies they had formed to exploit her name, image, and likeness. They allege that they invested heavily to pull Priscilla back from the brink of insolvency and were later shunned, in violation of their agreements.
A few weeks after Lisa Marie’s death, Presley filed a legal challenge disputing the validity of her daughter‘s will, after it was reportedly altered in 2016 to remove Priscilla and a former business manager, Barry Siegel, as trustees, replacing them with Lisa Marie’s daughter Riley Keough.
The change meant Presley lost influence over her daughter’s assets, including Graceland mansion, its archives, and Lisa Marie’s 15 per cent interest in Elvis Presley Enterprises, the company that owns and manages Elvis’ name, image, and likeness.
In November 2023, Keough and Presley reached a settlement which saw Priscilla receive a $1million lump-sum payment off the top of Lisa Marie’s $25million life insurance policy.
Keough also agreed to pay Priscilla $50,000 to resign as co-trustee of the irrevocable trust whose sole asset was the life insurance policy. And Priscilla was awarded an annual salary of $100,000 for 10 years for her new role as a “special advisor” to the Promenade Trust.
Five months later, Presley was hit with the first breach of contract lawsuit over the Kruse and Fialko partnership. She sought to dismiss the complaint and then, in 2024, filed her own claim of financial elder abuse.
The original filing describes Kruse as a “con-artist and pathological liar” who allegedly stole over $1million from Presley and also claimed that she “fraudulently induced” Presley into signing contracts that gave the defendants named in the lawsuit 80 per cent of her income.
This allegedly included the $500,000 she made from Sofia Coppola’s film adaptation of her biography Elvis and Me and the $349,900 she received in connection with her “Cilla” cosmetics deal. Presley claims that she negotiated the deal for Coppola’s film, titled Priscilla, under a predecessor company before Kruse and Fialko “were even involved in her affairs,” but that the pair “never paid [her] a dime,” per the lawsuit.
The complaint went on to allege that 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,” (per Rolling Stone).
According to Far Out Magazine, the 45-page complaint saw Presley claim that Kruse had “quickly immersed herself in Presley’s life” following their initial meeting in 2021. The complaint further alleged that Kruse would send “her multiple text messages a day, and telling her how much she loved her and admired her.”
Presley also alleged that Kruse and Fialko “attempted to obtain an invitation to the premiere of Priscilla at the Venice Film Festival” even though they “had absolutely nothing to do with the film.”
The complaint also alleged that Kruse and her associates were attempting to turn Presley against her previous advisors and made up false reasons for “massive payments they made to themselves from Presley’s bank accounts.”
Kruse and Presley have been in a legal battle for some time now with the memorabilia auctioneer previously suing Presley for breach of contract in Florida after claiming that she had walked away from their business partnership following the passing of Lisa Marie.
The new suit claimed that Kruse’s previous complaint was in attempt to further 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.
Presley is seeking at least $1million in general damages as well as punitive damages and attorney’s fees. She also seeks to have the “fraudulently-induced agreements” with the defendants rescinded in effort to regain control of her accounts.
“What Presley cannot accomplish through this action, however, is the rehabilitation of her personal friendships and relationships that were disrupted and/or materially harmed by the selfish, fraudulent acts of defendants, which could take years to accomplish, if at all,” stated the filing.
While Priscilla maintains she was duped into signing the business contracts with Kruse and Fialko, the former partners say she understood everything. Video unearthed by Rolling Stone shows Priscilla signing the contracts at Kruse’s house with a lawyer present.
In a statement sent to Rolling Stone late Wednesday, Morgan defended his work with Priscilla. “I’ve known Priscilla Presley and her family for many years, and she has a heart of gold, is an incredible human being, and a true legend and American icon [who] should be protected,” he wrote. “Unfortunately, I’ve read a lot of malicious lies recently which are not true, and the truth will ultimately prevail.”
This is a developing story.
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