Priscilla Presley Sparks Dementia Fears Over $1M Rip-Off Lawsuit: Pals Asking ‘Is This Part of Larger Cognitive Decline Problem?’
Aug. 12 2024, Published 12:31 p.m. ET
Friends of Priscilla Presley fear the 79-year-old's mental state is slipping and she's and unwitting victim of financial elder abuse, a Graceland insider spilled to RadarOnline.com.
In her 45-page legal complaint, Elvis' aging ex — who's worth $50 million — claimed memorabilia auctioneer Brigitte Kruse and her business partners sweet-talked her and then robbed her blind to the tune of $1million.
The civil suit slammed Kruse as a "con artist and pathological liar" who allegedly "fraudulently induced" Priscilla into signing contracts that gave Kruse and her helpers 80% of her income.
Now, according to a source, friends worry "Priscilla left herself open to being misled and betrayed".
"They wonder: 'Did she just have an isolated lapse of judgment" or is this part of a larger problem of cognitive decline?"
Presley's suit claimed Kruse and her pals "prey[ed] 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".
She also said Kruse wormed her way into her life after they met in 2021, sending "multiple text messages a day...telling her how much she loved her and admired her".
Kruse and her associates allegedly convinced Presley her former advisers were "either deceitful or incompetent" and began making up reasons for "massive payments they made to themselves from Presley's bank accounts", according to the suit.
Priscilla claimed they charged her unnecessary fees, moved her accounts to their banks, and even had her paying the mortgage for a home owned by Kruse's husband.
In September 2021, Kruse filed a breach of contract suit against the elder beauty, alleging she cut off all contact after the group formed Priscilla Presley Partners.
Last February, Kruse sued Priscilla in Florida saying the star was nearly broke and had almost $700k in unpaid tax debt. She called Presley's subsequent legal action "retaliatory".
Now, according to our source: "Pals are concerned Priscilla allowed herself to be taken in."
While Priscilla was devastated and dazed over the 2023 death of her 54-year-old daughter, Lisa Marie, the lawsuit charges "they manipulated and defrauded [her] in an effort to enrich themselves."
Following her daughter's sudden passing, Priscilla also entered into a court battle with her granddaughter, Riley Keough, over Lisa Marie's $35million estate.
The pair have since settled their differences, with Lisa Marie's daughter reportedly agreeing to give her grandma a $1million lump-sum payment in June, two months before Kruse claimed she was ghosted by Priscilla.
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