All Shook Up
June 15, 2024 10:08 AM Subscribe
The search for the mysterious company behind a scheme to steal Elvis Presley’s Graceland estate ended last week, not in Nigeria--where initial clues seemed to lead--but at the front door of "a grandmother in Branson, Missouri, a con woman with a decades long rap sheet of romance scams, forged checks and bank fraud totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars, for which she did time in state and federal prison."
Makes sense - younger scammers would be all, “What’s a Graceland”?
posted by ryanshepard at 10:30 AM on June 15 [10 favorites]
posted by ryanshepard at 10:30 AM on June 15 [10 favorites]
It's still such an odd target, especially for an experienced con artist. You don't want to have wide awareness of a scam, and targeting Graceland was always going to get that.
posted by tavella at 10:55 AM on June 15 [11 favorites]
posted by tavella at 10:55 AM on June 15 [11 favorites]
That is a wild story. What a strange woman -- and het sister too!
posted by Saxon Kane at 11:06 AM on June 15 [2 favorites]
posted by Saxon Kane at 11:06 AM on June 15 [2 favorites]
I'm surprised she's not running for office yet! Seems like a highly qualified candidate for the Republican nomination.
posted by pulposus at 11:13 AM on June 15 [23 favorites]
posted by pulposus at 11:13 AM on June 15 [23 favorites]
Oh, all the RECEIPTS!!! That is a NICE job of investigating. Glad to see this type of work still being done by media organizations.
posted by Silvery Fish at 11:29 AM on June 15 [16 favorites]
posted by Silvery Fish at 11:29 AM on June 15 [16 favorites]
I wanna know more about her underwater welder "job". That bit seemed oddly specific.
posted by May Kasahara at 11:41 AM on June 15 [3 favorites]
posted by May Kasahara at 11:41 AM on June 15 [3 favorites]
I read the underwater welding thing and the weed entrepreneur thing as plausible covers for having a bunch of money intermittently (when a scam pays off) rather than an observable steady income.
posted by terretu at 12:16 PM on June 15 [16 favorites]
posted by terretu at 12:16 PM on June 15 [16 favorites]
That is a wild ride, thank you for posting! "Those who know Lisa [b. 1971] know her as different people: a woman made wealthy from inheritance, a cannabis entrepreneur, an underwater welder, an online harasser, a cancer faker, and a scammer. One thing they seem to agree on: She’s determined." I like the underwater welder detail too, as well as the anecdote in which she's at some bar wearing multiple pagers, cosplaying as a Very Important Medical Professional. Wish NBC had gone with a femme-fatale framing, given Lisa's "string of ex-lovers" and "defrauded boyfriends." On the other hand, whenever a story about a female criminal kicks off with the grandma detail, you know it will read like several screenplays mashed together.
See also Linda, Lisa's sister: Linda’s crimes were more sophisticated than Lisa’s bad checks and romance scams. According to the government’s case, from around 2006, Linda had been luring victims into investing in a fake hedge fund called RGM Enterprises LLC with promises of 40% returns. (One victim said he was later told by authorities it stood for “Really Great Money.”) The company came with a Las Vegas phone number and a fancy Las Vegas office address but in reality, was being run through a post office box. Promotional materials boasted a large staff, including a Cornell-educated chief operating officer, Joshua Nichols. After the FBI failed to find any record of him, the U.S. magistrate judge in the case wrote, “it is questionable whether Joshua Nichols is an actual person.”
Cornell, classy! Lisa and Linda are now living together, and Linda's influence means Lisa is stepping up her game(s)? It's odd the article includes photographs of Lisa and her home, when's fairly crying out for a snapshot of the sisters in the same room.
posted by Iris Gambol at 12:27 PM on June 15 [3 favorites]
See also Linda, Lisa's sister: Linda’s crimes were more sophisticated than Lisa’s bad checks and romance scams. According to the government’s case, from around 2006, Linda had been luring victims into investing in a fake hedge fund called RGM Enterprises LLC with promises of 40% returns. (One victim said he was later told by authorities it stood for “Really Great Money.”) The company came with a Las Vegas phone number and a fancy Las Vegas office address but in reality, was being run through a post office box. Promotional materials boasted a large staff, including a Cornell-educated chief operating officer, Joshua Nichols. After the FBI failed to find any record of him, the U.S. magistrate judge in the case wrote, “it is questionable whether Joshua Nichols is an actual person.”
Cornell, classy! Lisa and Linda are now living together, and Linda's influence means Lisa is stepping up her game(s)? It's odd the article includes photographs of Lisa and her home, when's fairly crying out for a snapshot of the sisters in the same room.
posted by Iris Gambol at 12:27 PM on June 15 [3 favorites]
This whole thing gave me very big "Baby Reindeer" vibes, particularly the bit about how when harassing the nail salon with fake complaints online, all her different personae used the same poor spelling.
posted by Saxon Kane at 12:39 PM on June 15
posted by Saxon Kane at 12:39 PM on June 15
Am I misunderstanding or is the headline a little misleading? She wa never trying to steal Graceland, she was trying to threaten to as a means of tricking Riley Keough into repaying a loan that had never been made. It is pretty funny that the the fake companies initials are NIPL so probably lawyers have been referring to "nipple" a bunch.
posted by axiom at 1:12 PM on June 15 [1 favorite]
posted by axiom at 1:12 PM on June 15 [1 favorite]
When reached for comment, expelled former Congressman George Santos exclaimed, "Mom!"
posted by zaixfeep at 1:50 PM on June 15 [16 favorites]
posted by zaixfeep at 1:50 PM on June 15 [16 favorites]
The article didn’t explain how the emails from the Nigerians were connected.
posted by Melismata at 3:27 PM on June 15
posted by Melismata at 3:27 PM on June 15
The article didn’t explain how the emails from the Nigerians were connected.
They were from an identity that was created by the con artist, so presumably not actually from Nigeria.
posted by zippy at 3:54 PM on June 15 [1 favorite]
They were from an identity that was created by the con artist, so presumably not actually from Nigeria.
posted by zippy at 3:54 PM on June 15 [1 favorite]
wow, that poor family
posted by mr ruby violet at 4:35 PM on June 15
posted by mr ruby violet at 4:35 PM on June 15
And she would’ve gotten away with it if it hadn’t been for that crazy kid.
Sorry, I had to say it.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 8:16 PM on June 15
Sorry, I had to say it.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 8:16 PM on June 15
She wa never trying to steal Graceland, she was trying to threaten to
She had moved to foreclose on the property.
posted by praemunire at 8:23 PM on June 15 [5 favorites]
She had moved to foreclose on the property.
posted by praemunire at 8:23 PM on June 15 [5 favorites]
Ugh. I understand why the media does it, but calling her a grandmother in the headline is so tiresome. I'm not sure I've ever seen them use that framing with men. And I certainly didn't get the impression from the articles that she considers "grandmother" a major part of her identity.
That grumble out of the way, I do love these kinds of stories. The lengths people will go to with their scams, and how dumb some of them are (the scams, or the people?). So flipping weird to me.
posted by cinnamonduff at 8:24 PM on June 15 [18 favorites]
That grumble out of the way, I do love these kinds of stories. The lengths people will go to with their scams, and how dumb some of them are (the scams, or the people?). So flipping weird to me.
posted by cinnamonduff at 8:24 PM on June 15 [18 favorites]
The Nigerian angle actually makes more sense, because foreigners do not know the cultural and historical importance of the building. No American in their right mind would think they could get away with such a thing. Nice try, Lisa.
posted by Melismata at 5:03 AM on June 16
posted by Melismata at 5:03 AM on June 16
I encountered so many people like this when I ran a small business. They can’t be bothered to take the time to pay a bill, but will spend countless hours harassing you when you try to collect.
posted by jabah at 6:18 AM on June 16 [2 favorites]
posted by jabah at 6:18 AM on June 16 [2 favorites]
This article really puts perspective on things, though, doesn't it?
posted by badbobbycase at 4:08 PM on June 16 [1 favorite]
posted by badbobbycase at 4:08 PM on June 16 [1 favorite]
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