A self-described scammer released a statement claiming responsibility for a bizarre scheme to try to force American rock legend Elvis Presley's Tennessee Graceland estate into foreclosure.
In a letter to the New York Times the individual purportedly wrote, "We figure out how to steal. That's what we do."
Then in another letter addressed to CNN an individual wrote, "I didn't win this one. I've stole many identities and received monies, we don't win all."
In another letter reported on by The Commercial Appeal, the message said "To all the press I am the Yahoo Ring Leader of Nigeria ... the Presly [sic] is all made up and a hoax ... We sit and laugh at you idiots and watch you make fools of yourself."
CNN said the organization was not able to independently verify that the entity responding to their request for comment on the matter was behind the scheme.
U.S. News
Judge in Tennessee blocks effort to put Graceland up for sale
In late May Riley Keough, Elvis Presley's granddaughter, sought a temporary restraining order and filed a lawsuit to try to stop a public auction for the historic 13-acre Memphis property. A judge blocked the sale.
A public notice for a foreclosure sale on the estate had been posted earlier that same month claiming the controlling entity for Graceland's museum, Promenade Trust, owed $3.8 million after it failed to repay a loan from 2018. After Lisa Marie Presley's death, Keough inherited the trust and ownership of the home.
Keough’s lawyer said, “Lisa Maria Presley never borrowed money from Naussany Investments and never gave a deed of trust to Naussany Investments."
The person behind the scheme used a name and affiliated company moniker that Scripps News was not able to identify a web presence for — any existing traces of a presence online appearing to have been completely erased, apparently.