Lisa Marie Presley, left, with her mother Priscilla
Lisa Marie Presley is suing her former business manager for the loss of almost all her $100 million inheritance – accusing him of “reckless and negligent mismanagement” and claiming she has only $14,000 left.
The only child of Elvis and Priscilla Presley, she inherited his entire estate on her 25th birthday, in 1993.
Elvis’s fortune had dwindled to only a few million dollars at the time of his death in 1977, but the power of the Presley brand – including the tourist attraction Graceland – meant assets were built back up into the $100m trust.
Yet 25 years later Presley, now 50 and a singer in her own right, claims she has been left with almost nothing thanks to the actions of Barry Siegel.
She accused him, in a law suit filed in Los Angeles this week, of dissipating her wealth “through his reckless and negligent mismanagement and self serving-ambition”.
She also claimed Mr Siegel’s “hopes of attaining his own celebrity in the entertainment industry” led him to place her assets in “risky ventures.”
Elvis, outside his Memphis home, Graceland
In the documents, Presley claimed Mr Siegel sold 85 per cent of her interest in Elvis Presley Enterprises. He then allegedly began liquidating Presley’s assets in order to supplement her trust’s income.
Presley also claimed Mr Siegel’s business decisions left her with $500,000 in credit card debt.
However, Mr Siegel and his company, Providence Financial Management, filed their own lawsuit in response to Presley’s claims, alleging her out-of-control spending led to her financial predicament, and counter-suing for $800,000 in damages.
Leon Gladstone, a lawyer for Mr Siegel, said he had sued Presley first for non-payment.
“It’s clear Lisa Marie is going through a difficult time in her life and looking to blame others instead of taking responsibility for her actions,” Mr Gladstone said.
And the chapter is just the latest legal wrangling for Presley, who still lives in Memphis.
She is currently battling her fourth ex-husband, father of her nine-year-old twins Michael Lockwood, in the divorce courts and claiming she is $16 million in debt – although Lockwood disputes that, saying “she has not disclosed her assets or their values”.
She was previously married briefly to Michael Jackson and Nicholas Cage, and for nine years to musician Danny Keough, with who she has two children – a son, Benjamin, and a model daughter, Riley.
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