Law&Crime Sidebar - Bombshell Lawsuit Accuses Priscilla Presley of ‘Pulling Plug' on Daughter

Episode Date: August 15, 2025

Priscilla Presley is facing a jaw-dropping $50 million lawsuit from her former business partners. The complaint is packed with explosive allegations about money, contracts, and even her late daughter Lisa Marie’s final days. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber breaks down the wild claims, key evidence, and what could happen next.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Save time for your accountants with a clean, modern accounting software. Check out Odoo for a free 15-day trial at: https://www.odoo.com/sidebaraccountingHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Christina O'Shea & Jay CruzScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. We're diving into a jaw-dropping $50 million lawsuit involving Elvis Presley's ex-wife, Priscilla and her former business partners. This case, it is packed with shocking allegations, including claims about the final days of her daughter, Lisa Marie Presley. because this story is wild, it is personal, and it is full of a lot of twists. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime.

I'm Jesse Weber. I don't know if you've been seeing this, but there is this feud, apparently, between Elvis Presley's ex-wife, Priscilla Presley, and her former business partners. And I will tell you, it is just morphed into a bombshell, full-blown, $50 million lawsuit. I'm going to break down this whole company. for you today, and I will tell you, my gosh, talking allegations, one of the major things the plaintiffs allege is that Priscilla pulled the plug on her sick daughter, Lisa Marie, who died in 2023 at the age of 54. Yeah, that comes up in this complaint. It is wild. It is shocking. Now, I will also give you my opinion at the end of all of this about this lawsuit. What may, may not come into a trial. We'll talk about it. But I'm not kidding. That is just part of this lawsuit. So let me lay it off. you. So this lawsuit, this complaint, was filed in California State Court. Now, the plaintiffs, the people suing, are Bridget Cruz, Kevin Fialco, and an assortment of companies. And they're

suing Priscilla Presley, Kia Morgan, and other unnamed doze in this case. And you see that many times during the course of litigation. Sometimes they will, during the course of discovery, they'll find out who those people are. They may be added to the complaint. That's the purview of the plaintiffs. Anyway, so who's Cruz? Well, Cruz is described. in the complaint as a well-known auctioneer who would sell coveted Elvis Presley memorabilia. Fialco is described as a Desert Storm veteran, an entrepreneur, who apparently amassed a collection of Elvis memorabilia. More on them in a minute. Now, I need to lay out how this complaint starts, because it is very personal. I think that's a fair way to describe this.

Why? This is how it starts. Elvis Presley is the key. king of rock and roll. Defendant Priscilla Presley always wanted to be the queen. In fact, despite flaunting a public persona that only wanted to protect and keep her family together, Priscilla ultimately wanted one thing, power, no matter the cost. She did anything she could to control her image with the public. Yeah. So from there, the complaint alleges that there was this tumultuous relationship between Priscilla and her daughter Lisa Marie. And what you're going to see is this is about money. Okay, that's the main allegation. This is about money. That after Elvis's death in 1977, the complaint says his estate was placed in trust for solely Lisa Marie.

However, the plaintiffs alleged that when Elvis's father, who was the trustee and executor of Elvis's estate, you know, the person who oversees and carries out the duties and functions of the trust. When he was on his deathbed, they alleged Priscilla placed a lien on Elvis's property, Graceland, forcing her way to become co-executor and she took over management of the trust. Well, you fast forward to when Lisa Marie turns 25 and she inherits the Elvis estate. They allege in this complaint that Priscilla was dependent upon Lisa Marie, that she, quote, clung to Lisa Marie, despite the accusation that she was resentful. of her, that she envied her for always being in the spotlight.

As I said, this is very personal here, and it's going to be interesting how they intend to prove that. Maybe comments she made, maybe text messages. Also, keep this in mind. I do wonder if it's relevant. We'll talk about that a little bit later. By the way, I know many of you might be true crime fans out there, but is anyone also in a business of some kind? If so, let me ask you something.

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you can stop right now. Automate invoices, vendor bills, accounting workflow with Odu today. today, get a free 15-day trial today at odu.com slash sidebar accounting. So back to when Lisa Marie apparently came into her inheritance at 25. Well, the complaint states that she ended up setting up her own trust, and it was called the Promenade Trust, and it's a revocable living trust designed to protect Lisa Marie's assets and the inheritance.

It's estimated at around $100 million. By the way, a revocable trust, meaning it can be changed, it can be altered. Now, we haven't even gotten, by the way, to the plaintiffs yet and their connection to the case. We will get to that. But the complaint alleges that Priscilla exploited the Presley name to fund her lifestyle, to live off of what Elvis Presley built. For example, they allege that she demanded $6.5 million in 2005 for personal gain in order to compete against Lisa Marie. Well, they allege that Priscilla entered into an agreement with Elvis Brue. Presley Enterprises, EPS, that is owned by the licensing juggernaut ABG, authentic brands

group. Now, EPE manages Elvis's IP, name, image, likeness, we'll get to all that in a minute. But this part is important. So in 2010, the complaint states that Lisa Marie ended up listing Priscilla and Barry Siegel, this is Priscilla's apparent longtime financial manager, as co-trustees of the trust that she set up, and executed a medical directive that she wanted her life to be prolonged as long as possible when making end-of-life decisions. That is important in a little bit when we talk about what happened to Lisa Marie. Okay? So the plaintiffs claim that Lisa Marie found out that Priscilla and Siegel were allegedly

mismanaging her finances, stealing money from her. So what does she end up doing according to this complaint? They say Lisa Marie amended the trust, remember, revocable trust, and made her self-trustee, and she ended up listing her son, Ben and daughter Riley, famous actress, you've probably seen her in a bunch of things, as successor trustees. Now, there's a little bit more background information, a little bit more detail. I'm not going to get into all that. It gets a little complicated, but there is an allegation that Priscilla burned through the money that she received, meaning the $6.5 million. And how by 2021, she was, quote, financially

destitute, that she owed nearly $700,000 to the IRS. We don't know this for sure. Again, this is going to come out during the course of the litigation if it advances. But with all of that background, now we finally get to the plaintiff's Cruz and Fialco. Remember, who are they? How is their connection here? So they claim that Priscilla approached them, and she approached them to help her with their finances.

The strategy was, and this is what it says, that they would, quote, work to exploit her name, image, and likeness, NIL, that Cruz Fialco deployed IP know-how and creative marketing to enhance Priscilla's brand, that Priscilla licensed her IP rights to a company that was set up by the plaintiffs that would manage all this, that would manage her IP rights, or name, image, and likeness, in order to accomplish this goal of helping her finances to build up a brand. And then it was also sub-licensed to these other companies. It gets a bit tricky, but you understand. It gets a bit technical.

but you get the idea. And here's the key. They claim that Priscilla promised a few things in exchange, that she wouldn't compete with this strategy of exploiting her IP rights, that she would reveal to the plaintiffs other business opportunities that came along. The problem is they claim the plaintiffs. Priscilla never told them that she actually sold her IP rights already, her name, image, and likeness, years before in 2005 to the company I mentioned before, Authentic Brands Group, that big licensing company, allegedly selling Presley and Graceland to ABG for $6.5 million. By the way, you know who would be an important witness at a potential trial, Riley.

Why? Listen to this. Quote, when Cruz and Fialco learned about this prior deal, Priscilla repeatedly denied it until Priscilla's granddaughter, Riley Keough, shared the deal with Cruz and Fialco. Again, don't know if that's true, but Riley would probably be an important witness at an upcoming trial, or at least a deposition, right? Now, Cruz and Fialco ledge,

unbeknownst to them, this happened. And yet at the same time, they're working incredibly hard to build up the value of Priscilla's brand. They claim they acted in PR functions. They drafted public statements for her. They were trying to grow her image and brand, that they were doing all of this

at the expense of their own business. businesses. There are other businesses. And they claim they invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into Priscilla. Now, let's talk about the Elvis movie. Did you see it? Remember that came out a few years ago? Start Austin Butler, huge hit. Well, I am just going to read you verbatim from this complaint about the movie. And then it leads into Lisa Marie's death. Okay, it says, Lisa and Priscilla were each planning to attend the 23 Golden Globes on January 10th, 2023 in support of Elvis. But Lisa had no desire to see or otherwise be near Priscilla. Lisa had been in a long-running dispute with Siegel, and she resented that Priscilla

stayed with Siegel, further betraying her trust. Crucially, Priscilla was aware that Lisa was getting ready to remove her as the sole trustee of Lisa's irrevocable life insurance trust and was otherwise threatening to sue her. Cruz and Fialco nevertheless worked to keep the family together, working with Priscilla's publicists and arranging for Lisa and Priscilla to walk the red carpet together and sit next to one another at the event. Lisa was noticeably ill, complaining to Priscilla about her health. Priscilla ignored the warning signs despite being only a short drive from the world-renowned Ceders-Sinai Medical Center. Instead, Priscilla clasped to the spotlight, going out to the Chateau Marmont for drinks with Lisa and then sent Lisa on a long drive to her

Calabasas home. Within just over 24 hours, Lisa suffered cardiac arrest on Thursday, January 12th, and she was rushed to West Hills Hospital. Priscilla, who knew that Lisa was in the process of taking steps to remove her as the sole trustee of Lisa's irrevocable life insurance trust, saw an opportunity to regain control. Priscilla rushed to West Hills Hospital, and despite Lisa's clear directive to prolong her life, remember I talked about the before, get this, quote, Priscilla pulled the plug within hours of Lisa being admitted and before her granddaughter, Riley, was able to get to the hospital, demanding that Cruz issue a statement to the media so she could control the narrative. Priscilla demanded that a statement be released immediately, stating it is with a heavy heart that I must share the devastating news that my beautiful daughter, Lisa Marie, has left us. And then they claim that the following week, Priscilla allegedly said, I'm the queen, I'm in charge of Graceland.

Cruz and Fialca were heartbroken by the unsettling behavior. Wow. I know. So what happens next, according to the complaint? Well, they argue Priscilla wanted the money. And she went to the court and challenged the amendment to the trust. Remember the one that made Riley's successor trustee, that Priscilla won a control of the trust. She wanted control of Graceland and that she allegedly directed Cruz and Fialco with brokering a deal with Riley.

What was that apparent deal? Well, it included that Priscilla would be paid $2.4 million. They claim that ultimately the estate battle with Riley was resolved, but then Cruz claims he was contacted by defendant Kea Morgan, a purported friend of Priscilla Presley, who apparently claimed that he was an attorney, even though they say that was false. They claimed that Morgan was a person who was arrested in 2019 for allegedly committing elder abuse against all people, Stan Lee, the genius behind Marvel Comics. I know, this is a wild roller coaster of allegations here.

So they claim that Morgan says that he was represented by an attorney, and he claimed that they could help get Priscilla's name back from EPE, that company, the entity that controlled her name, image, and likeness. They claim that Morgan would make claims that he had these contacts with celebrities, that he would buy portions of their estate and use that as leverage to befriend these celebrities. And then there's an accusation that Morgan, again, who's a defendant in this case, that Morgan sent kind of a veiled threat, a text to Cruz saying, quote, I have over a hundred of the biggest VIP clients, billionaires in the world. It's a horrible idea to try and cross swords with me and attack me when I'm trying to help you.

If I want to insult you or attack you, trust me, you'll know it in a very loud and profound way. And from there, Cruz and Fialco claimed that Morgan and Priscilla initiated a smear campaign against them and spread all these kinds of lies, that Priscilla allegedly tried to undermine the name, image, and likeness rights she had negotiated. negotiated with them, that she violated the contract with them, that she cut off contact with them, and basically tried to exploit her IP rights on her own without them. And that Cruz and Fialco are like, wait a second, we had already spent a substantial amount of our personal funds on product development for the companies that manage the IP rights. And then, I'll give you an example, there's this, quote, adding insult to injury, despite brokering additional

compensation for Priscilla from A-24 pictures in connection with Sophia Coppola's Priscilla then set to premiere at the Venice Film Festival in November 2023. Priscilla abruptly cut ties, disinviting Cruz and Fialco from the premiere. Instead, defendant Morgan posted an image of himself and Priscilla on a boat in Venice, Italy, on or around November 6, 2023, claiming he had been in Venice with Priscilla to promote the release of the then highly anticipated Priscilla. There's also an allegation that days later, NBC announced that Priscilla was going to be part of the production Christmas at Graceland, but she never told Cruz about it. Didn't even include Cruz or Fialco in the use of her name, image, or likeness in connection with this program.

Okay, so that's the backstory. Those are the allegations. Now, what exactly are the plaintiff suing for here? Multiple separate causes of action. I'm going to try to simplify it as best as possible. count one. Fraud in the inducement. So this basically means that Presley had allegedly told Cruz and Fialco that she owned the rights to use her name and image and likeness, but actually she had already sold those rights to someone else and didn't say so. And her representations or maybe alleged misrepresentations were made to get these people to invest money and help her financially. And because they believed her, they spent a lot of money helping her grow her brand. If they had known the truth, they wouldn't have done. done that. So now they're saying Presley's fraud cost them over $50 million and they want to be paid. They want to be compensated, including extra punishment money because they think she did it on purpose. Count two, common count goods and services rendered. So Presley had allegedly asked

Cruz and Fialco to do a bunch of work for her like dealing with all these legal issues about her family's estate, negotiating business deals. They did the work, but Presley allegedly hasn't paid them what they owed for these services. Count three. Conversion. That Presley had access to a company bank account but allegedly took money without anyone's permission, close the account, and messed up the company's operations. And even though she was a member, she wasn't allowed to do that under the company rules. That's the allegation. She also allegedly ignored the agreed upon split of the money. So the company wants that money back and the damages for what they lost. Remember, some of the companies here are plaintiffs in this case.

There's another one for conversion, same like count three, but for a different company called Recollections. So Presley, again, allegedly took money without permission against the company rules, ignored the agreed upon splits, and refused to return the money. And Recollections wants their money back and damages. Another count of conversion, again, like the other two, but this is for a company called virtual recollections. And Presley took, again, the allegation that Presley took funds that she wasn't allowed to,

broke the rules, refused to return the money, and virtual recollections wants a judgment for damages and their funds. Count six. Breach of the PPP operating agreement. So Presley apparently agreed to let this company PPP control and make money from her name or image, her likeness, the one that was set up by the plaintiffs, promise not to do it on her own, but she allegedly did things without PPP, like skipping PPP on movie permits. and TV shows and public events and working with others to profit off of her name. So PPP, this company says she broke the contract. It hurt the business.

They want money damages and a court order to stop her from doing this again without PPP. Count seven. Breach of the PbPBK2 operating agreement. So Presley is apparently a part owner of this company with, again, these greed upon money splits. She allegedly took money from the company's bank and endorsement deals without following the rules or getting approval, and the company says that she broke the contract, wants compensation for the money that was lost. Count eight, breach of the recollections operating agreement, similar to the above, but again, for recollections, this company that Presley allegedly took money without following the agreed upon splits or permission. The company says she broke the contract, caused financial harm.

Count nine, breach of the virtual recollections operating agreement, that, again, pressily. agreed not to compete with virtual recollections, another sub-licensey company of her rights, and to help them use her name, image, and likeness, but instead, the allegation is she did things like excluding them from events, cooperating with others, using her name without them. The allegation is she broke the contract, her duties that were owed to them caused harm. They want to be compensated, and they want a court order to stop her from continuing to do this. Count 10. Breach of the SILA endorsement agreement.

So Presley was supposed to make sure that this company SILA. Inc. had paid another sub-licensee company for using her IP rights, and instead, Presley allegedly got Silla to pay her directly. And the allegation is this broke the contract. It hurt that sub-licensee company. They want damages in a court order. Count 11. Intentional interference with the SILA agreement. So the allegation here is that this sub-licensee, this company that was managing her rights, had a contract with Silla. Presley knew about it. Presley intentionally messed with this by getting Silla to pay her directly, not the company. No good reason for this interference.

And now this sublicency company claims damages. They ask for an injunction to stop Presley's interference. I know it's very complicated, but again, kind of very similar to what we're talking about. Count 12, there's misappropriation of NIL. Again, the name, image, and likeness rights. So this PPP company, again, they claim they had exclusive rights to Presley's IP rights, and her permission was required for commercial use. They claimed Presley kind of went rogue, used her IP rights for paid events, merchandise, and more without the company's

approval. They want damages, a court order, all that. Count 13, another misappropriation of her IP rights. This is with respect to virtual recollections. There is another count of 14 breach of disclosure agreement. So the allegation here is that Presley agreed to immediately tell Cruz in writing about any name, image, or likeness offers that she received. Get Cruz is okay before signing any contracts. The allegation being that Presley didn't disclose certain deals like the NBC deal signed contracts without Cruz's approval. Cruz is claiming damages from this ongoing breach. Count 15 intentional interference with contractual relations. That Presley has contracts with the plaintiffs. Morgan knew about these contracts and allegedly spread lies about Cruz and Fialco

to Presley. This caused Presley to breach her contracts. And plaintiffs say that Morgan's actions hurt them. They want damages, including punitive damages, to punish Morgan. Remember, Morgan's a defendant in this case. Count 16, intentional interference with prospective economic relations. So the idea here, plaintiffs had a likely profitable business relationship with Presley. Morgan allegedly knowingly interfered by spreading falsehoods to Presley disrupting that relationship. Plaintiffs say that Morgan's actions caused them harm. They want damages. They want to deter this from happening. And in the end, what we're seeing here is a lawsuit for damages, attorney's fees, costs, expenses, remember $50 million lawsuit. Okay, by the way, one more thing I have to mention.

Attached to this complaint towards the end, pieces of documentation, potential evidence, things like the advanced health care directive from Lisa Marie Presley, a signed memorandum of understanding between Priscilla and the plaintiffs in this case. There are text messages. My take. Okay, look, these are allegations. They are detailed. There is at least some supporting documentation at the start of this.

There are many causes of action, which, you know, kind of puts it on the defendant, Priscilla, Morgan, to fight. But with so many allegations, you can also make the argument, it shows a pattern, and that can help in a case like this. Now, there would be extensive discovery revolving multiple companies, communications, key witnesses like Riley Keough, and if the plaintiffs can show that the money they invested in Priscilla, what they lost, what their harm is, that is key. Now, I will tell you, there are certain issues to this lawsuit that I see from the beginning.

I don't know the full context, but I do wonder how much all, of this backstory with Lisa Marie is relevant. Sure, there's a part of it where they played a role in rebuilding the relationship between Priscilla and Lisa Marie and trying to make sure it looked okay for the public's perspective.

But I do wonder this whole separate issue about Lisa Marie's death. It's major. That is a whole other avenue on how to explore and whether the judge would even allow

that portion of the story into the trial. There could be an argument that it is way too prejudicial, that it is not relevant to the actual legal claims that they are suing for. Because you would wonder, are they really in a position to

sue in connection with Lisa Marie's death per se? No, it's not like a wrongful death action, but you do wonder how that affects them. You know, they talk about them being devastated. There's no like emotional distress claim, but But you can make the argument it's relevant because it goes into the work that they were doing for Priscilla when it came to Lisa Marie.

But I just wonder if a judge is going to say it's too irrelevant, it's too prejudicial to the jury, I'm not allowing it in, not sure it would work. By the way, there's also other issues. There's the issue of proving Morgan's alleged role. That could be a little bit more difficult than Priscilla, you know, whether Morgan interfered, how Morgan allegedly interfered. There's also the damages calculation. So there's a lot to be thinking about at the onset of this case. But I'll tell you, look, if this doesn't settle, this is going to move forward with motions, discovery on the financials, the communications, the trust documents, depositions.

And you've got to wonder, just the mere act of filing this lawsuit. It's now all in the news making these allegations. You know, ironically, if this is a case about Priscilla's PR, you know, her public image, how to restore it. This is not something she needed. Okay, I'll tell you that much. But we'll continue to follow it, see where it goes. That's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you should get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. Speak to you next time.

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