Priscilla Presley faces a $50 million lawsuit from former business partners who accuse her of fraud, breach of contract, and exploiting her daughter Lisa Marie Presley’s death to regain control of the Presley estate. The lawsuit, filed Monday, August 11, in Los Angeles County Superior Court by Brigitte Kruse and Kevin Fialko, contains explosive allegations about the 80-year-old’s conduct during her daughter’s final days.
The complaint alleges that Presley ignored Lisa Marie’s advance health care directive and withdrew life support within hours of her daughter’s hospital admission in January 2023. According to court documents, Lisa Marie had specified in her 2010 directive that she wanted her life “prolonged as long as possible within the limits of generally accepted health care standards.” The plaintiffs claim Presley made this decision before granddaughter Riley Keough could reach the hospital and then demanded Kruse issue a media statement to control the narrative.
Kruse, an Elvis memorabilia auctioneer, and Fialko, a memorabilia collector, allege that Presley’s actions were motivated by financial interests related to the Presley estate. The lawsuit claims Lisa Marie was in the process of removing her mother as sole trustee of her irrevocable life insurance trust and was threatening legal action. Following Lisa Marie’s death, the complaint alleges Presley declared at her home before the funeral that she was “the queen” and “in charge of Graceland.”
The business dispute centers on agreements the plaintiffs claim they made with Presley beginning in 2021 to revitalize her brand and financial situation. Kruse and Fialko allege they invested millions of dollars and thousands of hours to pull Presley back from financial ruin, including settling her debts and establishing multiple companies to exploit her name, image, and likeness. However, they claim Presley concealed that she had sold the rights to the “Presley” name and “Graceland” in 2005 for $6.5 million as part of a deal with Elvis Presley Enterprises.
The lawsuit alleges that when confronted about the 2005 agreement, Presley initially denied making the deal and later claimed she had forgotten about it. The plaintiffs contend this failure to disclose the prior sale constituted fraud, as they were led to believe she retained full ownership of her intellectual property rights while making their investments.
According to the complaint, the business relationship soured after Lisa Marie’s death when Presley allegedly cut ties with her partners and began exploiting her name and likeness independently. The lawsuit claims she made appearances on NBC’s “Christmas at Graceland,” comic conventions, and promotional events without sharing proceeds with Kruse and Fialko, in violation of their agreements.
The filing also alleges that Presley worked with Keya Morgan, Stan Lee’s former business manager, to weaponize elder abuse claims against Kruse and Fialko. The lawsuit claims these accusations were false and designed to exclude the plaintiffs from compensation they had legally earned while allowing Presley to avoid contractual obligations.
Presley’s attorney Marty Singer responded with a strongly worded statement calling the lawsuit “one of the most shameful, ridiculous, salacious, and meritless lawsuits I have seen in my practice.” Singer characterized the filing as retaliation for Presley’s own elder abuse lawsuit against Kruse and Fialko filed in July 2024. He indicated that granddaughter Riley Keough stands behind her grandmother completely and is disgusted by the latest legal attack.
The attorney representing Kruse and Fialko, Jordan Matthews, maintained his clients possess video recordings and communications proving no elder abuse occurred. Matthews indicated the evidence would show his clients were the real victims who invested significantly in revitalizing Presley’s brand only to be betrayed once financial success was achieved.
This lawsuit represents an escalation of legal battles that began in Florida in 2022 when Kruse first filed a breach of contract suit against Presley. The current complaint adds new defendants, including Morgan, and expands the allegations to include claims about Lisa Marie’s medical care and death.
The legal dispute occurs against the backdrop of broader conflicts over the Presley estate following Lisa Marie’s death from small bowel obstruction on January 12, 2023, at age 54. Presley initially challenged a 2016 amendment to her daughter’s trust that removed her as trustee in favor of Riley Keough, but the matter was settled five months later with Presley receiving $1 million from Lisa Marie’s life insurance policy and an annual $100,000 salary as special advisor to the Promenade Trust.
Kruse and Fialko are seeking more than $50 million in damages and have demanded a jury trial. Their lawsuit represents the latest chapter in ongoing legal battles surrounding the Presley estate that have continued since Elvis Presley’s death in 1977.
