A woman has admitted attempting to defraud Elvis Presley’s family by trying to auction off his Graceland mansion and property before a judge halted the mysterious foreclosure sale.

Lisa Jeanine Findley had initially denied charges of mail fraud and aggravated identity theft in relation to the scheme but has now changed her plea in the two-count indictment.

Prosecutors had said Findley, of Kimberling City, Missouri, falsely claimed Presley’s daughter Lisa Marie had borrowed $3.8m (£3m) from a bogus private lender and had pledged Graceland as collateral for the loan before her death in January 2023.

Findley then threatened to sell Graceland to the highest bidder if Presley’s family did not pay a $2.85m (£2.25m) settlement, according to authorities.

She posed as three different people allegedly involved with the fake lender, fabricated loan documents and published a fraudulent foreclosure notice in a Memphis newspaper announcing the auction of Graceland in May 2024, prosecutors said.

A judge stopped the sale after Presley’s granddaughter and Lisa Marie’s daughter, actress Riley Keough, sued.

Experts were baffled by the attempt to sell off one of the most famous pieces of property in the country using names, emails and documents that were quickly suspected to be fake.

Graceland opened as a museum and tourist attraction in 1982 and draws hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.

A large Presley-themed entertainment complex across the street from the museum is owned by Elvis Presley Enterprises.

Presley, known as the King of Rock and Roll, died in August 1977 at the age of 42

Keough, who inherited the trust and ownership of the home after the death of her mother, filed a lawsuit claiming fraud against Findley and a judge halted the proposed auction with an injunction.

Naussany Investments and Private Lending – the bogus lender authorities say Findley created – said Lisa Marie Presley had used Graceland as collateral for the loan, according to the foreclosure sale notice.

The judge said Elvis Presley’s estate could be successful in arguing that a company’s attempt to auction Graceland was fraudulent.

Read more from Sky News:
Businessman’s body found in ‘sack of pineapples’
Large bruise on Trump’s hand prompts speculation over health
Couple ‘forced’ to sit next to dead woman on flight

Ms Keough’s lawsuit alleged that Naussany presented fraudulent documents regarding the loan in September 2023 and that Ms Presley never borrowed money from Naussany.

After the scheme fell apart, Findley tried to make it look like the person responsible was a Nigerian identity thief, prosecutors said.

An email sent on 25 May 2024 to the Associated Press from the same email as the earlier statement said in Spanish that the foreclosure sale attempt was made by a Nigerian fraud ring that targets old and dead people in the US and uses the internet to steal money.

In a statement, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti called the scheme “nonsense” and praised the work of federal authorities.

“Graceland matters so much to so many people around the world – just go to Memphis during Elvis Week and listen to all the different accents and languages of fans who make the pilgrimage,” Mr Skrmetti said.

“All of Tennessee is glad that Graceland remains safely in the possession of Elvis’s heir and that it will remain a celebrated Memphis landmark for generations to come.”

Findley will be sentenced on 18 June and would have faced up to 20 years if convicted, but she is expected to receive less than that under the plea deal.

The BBC has apologised after it “missed opportunities that might have led to action” following claims of “bullying and misogynistic behaviour” against former Radio One star Tim Westwood.

It comes after the publication of an independent external review into Westwood‘s conduct while he was working for the corporation.

The review did not find “significant BBC knowledge of allegations or concerns about sexual misconduct” by the DJ, but concluded “a range of factors… ought to have alerted” the broadcaster to the possibility he might “present a risk to young women and girls”.

Westwood did not take part in the review. In a statement for the report sent through his solicitors, he strongly denied his behaviour “ever amounted to bullying or harassment”, and said some people “behaved poorly” towards him.

Publication of the report, commissioned in 2022, has faced several delays – including in December, when the BBC postponed at the request of the Metropolitan Police.

The review, carried out by barrister Gemma White KC, cost approximately £3.3m.

It included contributions from more than 120 people and highlights several allegations which Ms White said showed there was a “considerable body of evidence either known to, or available to” the BBC which raised questions about Westwood’s conduct.

Responding to the report, the BBC board highlighted the review had found “no widespread or significant BBC knowledge of allegations or concerns about predatory sexual behaviour”.

Their statement continued: “It is clear, however, that there were instances where the organisation missed opportunities that might have led to action. Allegations were treated in isolation rather than being brought together. Had this happened, the BBC may have seen a pattern of behaviour that it could have acted on.

“There is evidence of bullying and misogynistic behaviour on the part of Mr Westwood and the plain fact is that his general conduct was entirely incompatible with BBC values – not just now, but then. The organisation fell short and failed people – including our own staff – who had a right to expect better from us.”

What did the review find?

People who reported allegations against Westwood said they were “concerned that they would not be believed or might be blamed” for his alleged behaviour, Ms White wrote in her report.

The DJ was “very popular so no one wanted to listen”, one person said.

“A common theme amongst those who reported allegations was that they did not know or understand at the time that the behaviour which they had described to me was wrong,” the report said.

One person described Westwood’s conduct as being “so public” and “brazen”, the report stated, and members of the BBC production team were left “upset and in tears” as a result of his alleged bullying and harassment.

The report read: “People referred to Tim Westwood refusing to talk to some of his BBC production team members, ‘freezing them out’ and giving them the ‘silent treatment’.

“Many told me that they, and others, found it very difficult to work with him.”

Ms White’s report said “many people” also raised concerns about the way Westwood treated people on air, including jokes about women’s breasts, and the review team listened to a selection of his 1Xtra drivetime shows during their investigations.

“There are repeated examples of Tim Westwood discussing, or referring to, the bodies of those who were in the studio with him and of jokes at their expense,” Ms White wrote.

However, she added: “I did not hear of any allegation of inappropriate sexual contact with BBC colleagues and no BBC employee who worked with Tim Westwood told me that they regarded inappropriate sexualised language that Tim Westwood is alleged to have used about them to be a sexual advance.”

 The BBC has taken a range of actions in recent years, including implementing a specialist case management process to consider the most serious allegations and concerns raised, as well as a new anti-bullying and harassment policy.

Westwood began his career on local radio before joining Capital Radio in London.

He then moved to the BBC and left Radio 1 and Radio 1Xtra after nearly 20 years in 2013. He hosted a regular Saturday show on Capital Xtra, where he was referred to as “The Big Dawg”, before he left the company in 2022.

In their statement for the review, Westwood’s lawyers said he had complained about “negative behaviour” towards him when he worked for 1Xtra and was “essentially advised to rise above it”.

He also said after a move to a new slot in 2009, “the environment felt competitive and hostile” and was “toxic from the outset”.

On some occasions, Westwood “took issue with some of his colleagues’ poor attitude to work and low productivity, and expressed his opinion that they were lazy and out of touch with the audience”, his lawyers’ statement said. “He accepts that this contributed to a divisive atmosphere within some of the teams with which he worked.”

Allegations against Westwood were first made public in 2022, when several women accused him of sexual misconduct. He has strongly denied all allegations of inappropriate behaviour and wrongdoing.

The Met Police previously said detectives were investigating accusations of offences alleged to have happened between 1982 and 2016.

More than 1,000 artists and musicians including Kate Bush, Damon Albarn, Sam Fender and Annie Lennox have recorded a silent album in protest at proposed changes to copyright law, which they say could lead to artists being replaced by artificial intelligence (AI).

Is This What We Want? also involves artists including Billy Ocean, Tom Grennan, New Order, Simon Le Bon, Tori Amos, Pet Shop Boys, The Clash, Bashy, Jamiroquai and Imogen Heap – along with a range of composers, conductors and organisations such as Hans Zimmer, and the Royal Albert Hall and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.

It features recordings of empty studios and performance spaces – which artists say could become a reality for musicians in the UK if the changes go ahead.

The track listing spells out the message: “The British government must not legalise music theft to benefit AI companies.”

Under the government’s plans, an exemption to copyright would be created for training AI, so tech firms would not need a licence to use copyrighted material – and creators would need to opt out to prevent their work from being used.

A consultation on the issue closes today.

Sir Elton John and Simon Cowell have also backed a campaign opposing the proposals, and Sir Paul McCartney has spoken out against them.

The new plans fail to reimburse artists for AI recreating and copying their work, stifle creativity, and the proposed opt-out scheme places an unnecessary burden on artists, critics say.

All profits from the silent album will be donated to the musicians’ charity, Help Musicians.

Read more:
‘Regulate it before we’re all finished’
Why the UK didn’t sign up to global AI agreement

‘Throwing creative industries under the bus’

Campaigner Ed Newton-Rex, who organised the album, said: “The government’s proposal would hand the life’s work of the country’s musicians to AI companies, for free, letting those companies exploit musicians’ work to outcompete them.

“It is a plan that would not only be disastrous for musicians, but that is totally unnecessary. The UK can be leaders in AI without throwing our world-leading creative industries under the bus.

“This album shows that, however the government tries to justify it, musicians themselves are united in their thorough condemnation of this ill-thought-through plan.”

The creative industries have been vocal in their opposition to how powerful AI models such as ChatGPT can be used to generate fresh content on demand, imitating what already exists.

Concerns around their use by film and TV studios to write scripts or even replace actors were a key driver of the Hollywood strikes in 2023, while music labels have sought to prevent pop stars’ vocals from being freely cloned and photographers have spoken out against online art generators.

In 2023, UK music contributed £7.6bn to the UK economy, with exports of UK music reaching £4.6bn.

While some AI firms have started making deals to license content, many existing models have been trained using data from the public internet, including from news and other publishing websites.

Dan Conway, chief executive of the Publishers Association, the trade organisation representing book, journal and electronic publishers in the UK, said the “extraordinary strength of support” against the proposals is “something the government ignores at its peril”.

He continued: “When Booker, Grammy, Oscar and Nobel prize winners are united in calling on the government for a fair hearing, we have to hope they listen…

“The message to government is clear: the great copyright heist cannot go unchallenged.”