Priscilla Presley claims she has had $1 million stolen from her as part of elder abuse and fraud.
Elvis Presley’s ex-wife has filed a lawsuit via her lawyer Marty Singer claiming a woman named Brigitte Kruse and others took advantage of the 79-year-old and ripped off the fortune.
The filing also names Kevin Fialko, Vahe Sislyan, Lynn Walker Wright and Priscilla Presley Partners.
Priscilla claims Kruse, who is the founder of Kruse GWS Auctions, controlled her finances and forced her into a form of ‘indentured servitude’ by ‘gaining her trust’.
She has alleged she also isolated her from ‘the most important people in her life’, and duped her into ‘believing that they would take care of her’ personally and financially.
The filing added: ‘They convinced [Priscilla] that all of her former advisors were either deceitful or incompetent, and that she was leaving millions of dollars on the table as the result of their mismanagement.’
She has accused Kruse and Fialko of conspiring 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 documents also claim by ‘isolating her and immersing themselves in every aspect of her life’, the defendants were able to ‘fraudulently induce’ Priscilla into giving them power of attorney, control over her family and personal trusts, and ‘control over her bank accounts’.
Priscilla met Kruse through mutual connections to discuss selling Elvis memorabilia, according to the court documents.
Kruse then allegedly ‘quickly’ embedded herself in Priscilla’s life and they began working together by the end of 2021.
Priscilla claims she created companies on Kruse’s advice where her associates received 80% of her income and she was left with minority shares in the company.
It’s alleged that Priscilla Presley Partners, which she and Kruse founded together, worked with others to misappropriate more than $1 million.
Priscilla also claims that the defendants withdrew $40,000 from the bank account of her son Navarone Garcia for ‘no legitimate reason’.
She is seeking to have the license and operating agreements for the ‘sham’ companies taken back and to block the defendants from having access to her financial accounts.
In October 2023, Priscilla Presley Partners’ Kruse and Fialko sued Priscilla for an alleged breach of contract two months after she severed business relations with Kruse.
Priscilla’s filing reads: ‘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.’