Priscilla Presley is suing her former business associates for financial elder abuse and fraud, claiming they conned her out of more than $1 million.
According to the complaint filed Thursday in Los Angeles, the defendants, including Florida-based memorabilia auctioneer Brigitte Kruse and investor Kevin Fialko, 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.” The filing describes Kruse as a “con-artist and pathological liar” who misappropriated more than $1 million from Presley and “fraudulently induced” her into signing contracts that gave Kruse and Fialko 80 percent control over some of Priscilla’s business ventures.
“This action arises out of a meticulously planned and abhorrent scheme by the defendants in this action to prey on 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 — personally and financially — while their real goal was to drain her of every last penny she had,” the lawsuit filed by Presley’s lawyer Martin Singer and obtained by Rolling Stone reads.
Priscilla says the defendants placed a “stranglehold” on her finances and “withheld” not only the $500,000 she made from Sofia Coppola’s film adaptation of her biography Elvis and Me, but also the $349,900 she received in connection with her “Cilla” cosmetics deal. Though Priscilla says she negotiated the deal for Coppola’s film, titled Priscilla, under a predecessor company before Kruse and Fialko “were even involved in her affairs,” the pair “never paid [her] a dime,” the lawsuit states. Priscilla further alleges 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.”
“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,” Kruse and her legal team said in a comment sent by Kruse’s spokeswoman Thursday.
Kruse previously sued Presley for breach of contract in Florida. In that case, Kruse alleged that Presley, a world-famous actress and author who shot to fame through her marriage to Elvis Presley, illegally walked away from their business partnership after her circumstances changed in the wake of her daughter Lisa Marie Presley’s untimely death.
As Rolling Stone reported last fall, Presley eventually reached a trust settlement with granddaughter Riley Keough that granted her a $1 million lump-sum payment, $100,000 annual salary, and burial rights near Elvis at Graceland.
In her new 45-page complaint, Presley says Kruse “quickly immersed herself in Presley’s life” after meeting her in 2021, “often sending her multiple text messages a day, and telling her how much she loved her and admired her.” Presley alleges Kruse and her business associates managed to convince Presley that her former advisors were “either deceitful or incompetent” and then began fabricating reasons for “massive payments they made to themselves from Presley’s bank accounts.” She alleges they charged her unnecessary fees, moved her accounts to their preferred banks, and allegedly had Presley paying the mortgage for a home owned by Kruse’s husband.
According to the lawsuit, Kruse and her associates allegedly “torpedoed” a deal that was close to being finalized in which Presley was set to receive an ownership stake in the cosmetics company behind Cilla. Instead of the “potentially lucrative” ongoing ownership interest, they negotiated a one-time payment, Presley claims.
“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 lawsuit states. Presley says the defendants gave her a minority share in the companies while awarding themselves the “exclusive license to exploit and profit off of her name, image, and likeness, and to control and receive virtually all of her income from any of her professional ventures, including ones that pre-existed their involvement in her life.”
Presley, 79, is asking for general damages of at least $1 million as well as punitive damages and attorney’s fees. She also wants all the “fraudulently-induced agreements” with the defendants rescinded so she can regain control of her accounts and obtain a “full accounting of their financial malfeasance.”
“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,” the filing states.
