Priscilla Presley filed a $1 million lawsuit against former business associates on Thursday, July 18, claiming elder abuse in paperwork obtained by In Touch.
The former Dallas star’s powerhouse attorney Marty Singer filed the case in Los Angeles Superior Court. Priscilla, 79, is seeking the same amount in damages that she claims was stolen from her.
“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 reads.
It names Brigitte Kruse, Kevin Fialko, Vahe Sislyan, Lynn Walker Wright and Priscilla Presley Partners as defendants in the case.
Priscilla alleges that the defendants plan involved gaining control over her finances and “forcing her into a form of indentured servitude,” where Elvis Presley’s former wife “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 Naked Gun star claims that in two short years, the defendants “established a personal relationship” with her that enabled them to “gain her compete trust and isolate her from long-time business partners and financial advisors.”
Priscilla said she met Kruse in 2021 through a mutual connection, and that she wanted to meet to discuss selling Elvis memorabilia through her company GSW Auctions. Kruse then “quickly immersed herself” into Priscilla’s life and began “routinely” criticizing the work of her financial advisors and “chipping away” at her trust in them.
Kruse introduced her to Fialko, and the two were able to convince Priscilla to replace her advisors with ones handpicked by them.
Priscilla claims that under the duo’s advice, she set up companies where her associates received 80 percent of her income “that they fraudulently induced her into giving up.”
The lawsuit claims the pair “directed all revenue derived” from Priscilla’s “business ventures and
appearances to the new accounts that they created.” They also allegedly withdrew $40,000 from her son Navarone’s bank account for “no legitimate reason.”
Pricilla claims to have lost a total of $1 million in funds to the pair, as they “diverted all of her revenue to bank accounts that they set up and controlled, and drained those accounts of their funds.”
The Breakfast With Einstein star added that the time frame in which she was allegedly taken advantage of came during and after the heartbreaking death of her daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, on January 12, 2023, after she suffered cardiac arrest. Her cause of death was determined to be “sequelae” of small bowel obstruction. The scar tissue developed after bariatric surgery she had years prior.
“It is with a heavy heart that I must share the devastating news that my beautiful daughter, Lisa Marie, has left us,” the Elvis and Me author said in a statement at the time. “She was the most passionate, strong and loving woman I have ever known.”
“They manipulated and defrauded an older woman during extremely vulnerable moments in her life (including the death of her daughter) in an effort to enrich themselves,” Priscilla concluded in her lawsuit.
