Priscilla Presley sues ex-partners, alleging elder abuse and financial fraud
Priscilla Presley claims she suffered financial losses because of her former business partner. She has now filed a lawsuit.
Priscilla Presley, 79, alleges that a woman named Brigitte Kruse, Kevin Fialko, Vahe Sislyan and Lynn Walker Wright fraudulently convinced her to give them power over nearly every aspect of her life and then abused that control to steal from her money. Priscilla’s attorney, Marty Singer, filed a new lawsuit on July 18 for the same thing.
The Priscilla Presley Lawsuit
Presley’s attorneys filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Thursday, alleging that the people behind an LLC established in her name “fraudulently” forced her to “give them power of attorney, control over her family and personal trusts and control over Presley’s bank accounts ” for more than two years.”
In a filing, she alleges that managers at Priscilla Presley Partners, LLC, worked with others to misappropriate more than $1 million of her funds.
The actress, author and ex-wife of Elvis Presley accused her former partners, auction house founder Brigitte Kruse and Kevin Fialko, of conspiring to “take advantage of an older woman by gaining her trust, isolating her from the most important people of her life” and deceive her into believing that they would take care of her (personally and financially), while their true goal was to extract every last penny she had”, according to the lawsuit.
The filing alleges that the defendants took control of Presley’s finances, “forcing her into a form of indentured servitude, in which Plaintiff was forced so they could receive the share of any revenue she earns in the future.”
Presley is asking the court to bar the defendants from accessing her finances and require them to provide full documentation of the payments. She is asking for one million dollars in damages. Also read – The final trailer for Deadpool and Wolverine came with major spoilers
More about the lawsuit
According to the outlet, the documents claim that the 79-year-old met Kruse through mutual connections to discuss Kruse’s business selling Elvis memorabilia. Kruse allegedly “quickly immersed herself” in her life and they began working together in late 2021.
According to the documents, Priscilla’s new advisors, whom Kruse “falsely” chose, informed her that she was financially unstable and that she “would not survive without her ability to exploit her name, image and likeness in her name”. This is supposedly how Kruse gained access to Priscilla’s finances after she lost faith in her initial advisors.
According to the outlet, Priscilla alleges that after following Kruse’s advice, she founded a business in which her associates accounted for up to 80% of her income, while she got minority shares. She also claims that funds were misappropriated from the biopic Priscilla, directed by Sofia Coppola.
Priscilla also alleges that her former business partners agreed to pay her $300,000 upfront, depositing the funds into bank accounts they controlled.
In addition to this, records also indicate that the defendants withdrew $40,000 from her son Navarone García’s bank account without notifying either party and without “any legitimate reason.”
The documents say that to prevent the defendants from accessing and operating her bank accounts, Priscilla requests that the licenses and operating agreements of her “sham companies” be revoked and that they be held responsible for their illegal actions.
According to the publication, the filing also claims that they defrauded and manipulated an elderly woman during very vulnerable times in her life (including the death of her daughter) to enrich themselves.