Bombshell Lawsuit Accuses Priscilla Presley of ‘Pulling Plug' on Daughter

We're diving into a jaw-dropping $50. million lawsuit involving Elvis. Presley's ex-wife, Priscilla Presley, 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. Stick around 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 complaint. 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. what I think 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 all out for you. So this lawsuit, this complaint was filed in California. state court. Now the plaintiffs, the. people suing are Bridget Cruz, Kevin. Fialo, and an assortment of companies.

And they are suing Priscilla Presley, Kia Morgan, and other unnamed doese's 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? While. Cruz is described in the complaint as a. well-known auctioneer who would sell. coveted Elvis Presley memorabilia, FiCo. 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 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 executive 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 lean on. Elvis's property, Graceand, forcing her. way to become co-executive, 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.

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professionally formatted, instantly. accessible. So, if you've been doing all. of this accounting work manually, you. can stop right now. Automate invoices, vendor bills, accounting workflow with. ODU today. Get a free 15-day trial today. at odo.com/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 Prominade 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 alleged that Priscilla. entered into an agreement with Elvis. Presley Enterprises, EPS, that is owned. by the licensing juggernaut ABG, Authentic Brands Group. Now, EP 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 Seagull,

this is Priscilla's apparent longtime. financial manager, as co-rustees 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. Seagull were allegedly mismanaging her.

finances, stealing money from her. So. what did she end up doing according to. this complaint? They say Lisa Marie. amended the trust. remember revocable. trust and made herself 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 not going to get. into all that 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 $00,000 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 plaintiffs, Cruz and Fial. Remember, who are they? How is their. connection here? So, they claim that. Priscilla approached them and she. approached them to help her with her. 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 Fial deployed. IP knowhow, 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, her. name, image, and likeness in order to. accomplish this goal of helping her. finances to build up a brand. And that. it was also sublicensed to these other.

companies. 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 Graceand 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 Fialo learned about this. prior deal, Priscilla repeatedly denied. it until Priscilla's granddaughter, Riley Kio, shared the deal with Cruz and.

Fialo. 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 Fial. alleged, 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 businesses, their. other businesses. And they claimed 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? Starred 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 2023 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 longunning dispute with. Seagull and she resented that Priscilla. stayed with Seagull, 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 Fialo nevertheless worked to keep. the family together, working with. Priscilla's publicist 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 worldrenowned Cedar Sinai. Medical Center. Instead, Priscilla. clasped to the spotlight, going out to. the Chateau Marmmont 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 Graceand.". Cruz and Fiala 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 successor trustee? That. Priscilla wanted control of the trust. She wanted control of Graceand 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 claimed that ultimately the estate. battle with Riley was resolved. But then. Cruz claims he was contacted by. defendant Kia 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 EP, 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 Fialo 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 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 FIALO 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 A24 pictures in. connection with Sophia Copala's. Priscilla, then set to premiere at the. Venice Film Festival in November 2023. Priscilla abruptly cut ties, disinviting. Cruz and Fial 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 Graceand, but she never. told Cruz about it. didn't even include. Cruz or Fialo 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 plaintiffs. 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 Fialo 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 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 FiO 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, closed 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 in 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, her image, her likeness, the. one that was set up by the plaintiffs, promised not to do it on her own, but. she allegedly did things without PPP, like skipping PPP on movie premieres 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 pay. Count seven, breach of the. PBPK2. operating agreement. So Presley is. apparently a part owner of this company. with again these agreed 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 Presley agreed not to compete with.

Virtual Recollections, another. sublicency 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. uh Sila Inc. had paid another sublicency.

company for using her IP rights. And. instead Presley allegedly got Sila to. pay her directly. And the allegation is. this broke the contract. It hurt that. sublicency company. They want damages. and a court order. Count 11, intentional. interference with the Sila agreement. So. the allegation here is that this. sublicency, this company that was. managing her rights, had a contract with. Sila. Presley knew about it. Presley.

intentionally messed with this by. getting Sila to pay her directly, not. the company. No good reason for this. interference. And now the 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 claimed they had exclusive. rights to Presley's IP rights and her.

permission was required for commercial. use. They claim 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's okay before signing any. contracts. The allegation being that. Presley didn't disclose certain deals. like the NBC deal, sign 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 Fialo 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.

Pliff say that Morgan's actions cause. 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, attorneys 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 healthc 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. Kio. 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. 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 prejuditial, 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 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 it's going.

to if a judge is going to say it's too. irrelevant. It's too prejuditial 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. 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 Podcast, Spotify, wherever you should get your. podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. Speak to you. next time. [Music].