Priscilla Presley has been accused of fraud in a messy dispute with two former business partners who claim that she used her celebrity status to tarnish their reputations.
Brigitte Kruse, an Elvis memorabilia auctioneer, and Kevin Fialko, an Elvis memorabilia collector, sued Presley on Monday for fraud and breach of contract. They are seeking more than $50 million in damages.
The suit comes a year after Presley, who is scheduled to tour Australia in November, sued Kruse, Fialko and others, claiming that they had swindled her out of at least $1 million and had taken advantage of her trust and her old age in order to enter into unconscionable business arrangements.
In the new lawsuit, Kruse and Fialko allege that Priscilla falsely claimed ownership of her full name, image and likeness, despite having allegedly sold the rights to the “Presley” name and “Graceland” in 2005 for $6.5 million. According to the suit, Prelsey later claimed she had forgotten about the deal.
The complaint alleges that she failed to disclose this information while securing millions in investments and benefiting from thousands of hours of brand development, IP contributions and expertise provided by Kruse and Fialko.
According to the plaintiffs, following her daughter Lisa Marie Presley’s death, Priscilla and her associate, Keya Morgan, allegedly retaliated with false accusations of elder abuse — an alleged tactic intended to damage Kruse and Fialko’s reputations, avoid contractual obligations, and regain control of the Presley estate.
“As detailed video recordings and communications already confirm, there is absolutely no evidence of undue influence, coercion, or elder abuse involved, only a legitimate, well-documented business partnership,” said Los Angeles attorney Jordan Matthews, who represents Kruse and Fialko. “The evidence will establish that the real victims here are my clients, who invested millions and years of hard work into revitalizing Priscilla Presley’s brand, only to be betrayed and falsely accused once the money was on the table and every personal and business issue had been resolved.”
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Lisa Marie died in January 2023 at the age of 54 due to cardiac arrest. The lawsuit claims that Priscilla did not follow her daughter’s “clear directive to ‘prolong her life’” and instead, “Priscilla pulled the plug within hours of Lisa [Marie] being admitted, and before her granddaughter, Riley [Keough], was able to get to the hospital, demanding that Kruse issue a statement to the media, so she could control the narrative.”
The filing alleges that Presley exploited her daughter’s death to reclaim control over assets she had previously sold and to invalidate contracts that no longer served her interests. “Priscilla knew that Lisa’s death neutralized the threat of Lisa’s efforts to have Priscilla removed as the sole trustee of Lisa’s irrevocable life insurance trust,” the lawsuit states, adding that Priscilla “ultimately wanted to control” Lisa Marie’s Promenade Trust — which Lisa Marie established after coming into her inheritance in 1993 — and Graceland.
The complaint further claims that Morgan encouraged Priscilla to weaponize elder abuse claims — allegedly knowing they were false — and using them as leverage to exclude Kruse and Fialko from assets and compensation they had legally earned.
“Elder abuse is a very serious problem in our society,” Matthews said. “It’s unfortunate that Priscilla is doing for elder abuse what Amber Heard did for the #Metoo movement.”
Matthews added: “Priscilla stated that she was ‘forced into indentured servitude,’ which unfortunately undermines the important work of the Civil Rights movement.”
He continued, “Our complaint alleges that Priscilla targeted Kruse and Fialko from day one, when she was in dire financial need, faced with mounting IRS debt and multiple lawsuits, even within her own family. The complaint alleges that Priscilla’s relationship with her daughter was in ruins for decades and long before Kruse and Fialko were involved. Kruse and Fialko invested seven figures into rebuilding Priscilla’s brand, stabilizing her finances, settling her lawsuits, cleaning up numerous private family ordeals, and attempting to help Priscilla repair her relationship with her daughter. Priscilla has, in turn, smeared Kruse and Fialko with false lies and malicious campaigns.”
Presley’s lawsuit against Kruse and Fialko alleges that they fraudulently induced her to sign contracts so they could receive 80% of her income.
“They convinced Presley that all of her former advisors were either deceitful or incompetent, and that she was leaving millions of dollars on the table as the result of their mismanagement,” the complaint reads. “By isolating her and immersing themselves in every aspect of her life, the Defendants were able to fraudulently induce Presley into giving them power of attorney, control over her family and personal trusts, and control over her bank accounts.”
In a statement shared with Variety, Priscilla’s attorney Marty Singer responded to Kruse and Fialko’s lawsuit against his client: “This is, without a doubt, one of the most shameful, ridiculous, salacious, and meritless lawsuits I have seen in my practice. This is nothing more than a sad and vicious attempt to falsely tarnish the reputation of an eighty year old woman in blatant retaliation for bringing a lawsuit to redress the wrongful conduct of Brigitte Kruse, Kevin Fialko, and their co-conspirators. Kruse and her co-conspirators are now on their fourth different set of lawyers in this dispute, and this is a disgusting publicity stunt by new counsel, as evidenced by the fact that the complaint and press release were sent to the press before the complaint was served. 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.”
From Variety US