{"id":7361,"date":"2025-08-14T08:06:03","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T08:06:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/ex-partners-cite-lisa-maries-death\/"},"modified":"2025-08-14T08:06:03","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T08:06:03","slug":"ex-partners-cite-lisa-maries-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/ex-partners-cite-lisa-maries-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Partners Cite Lisa Marie’s Death"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n\tP<\/span>riscilla Presley\u2019s former business partners are firing back at her recent allegations of elder abuse, filing a countersuit that includes the shocking accusation that she \u201cpulled the plug\u201d on Lisa Marie Presley against her late daughter\u2019s wishes.<\/p>\n

\n\tA year after attorneys for Priscilla (Elvis Presley\u2019s widow) sued Brigitte Kruse<\/strong> and Kevin Fialko<\/strong> over claims that they schemed to \u201cprey on an older woman,\u201d lawyers for the two ex-advisors say they\u2019re<\/em> the real victims \u2014 of a \u201csmear campaign\u201d designed to avoid paying them for their work on her behalf.<\/p>\n

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\n\tIn a stunning allegation included in the new case, Kruse and Fialko\u2019s lawyers claim Presley \u201cignored the warning signs\u201d just before Lisa Marie suffered cardiac arrest in January 2023 and then removed her from life support prematurely amid a struggle over family finances.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cPriscilla, who knew that Lisa was in the process of taking steps to remove her as the sole trustee of Lisa\u2019s irrevocable life insurance trust, saw an opportunity to regain control,\u201d according to a copy of the lawsuit, submitted in court Monday (Aug. 11) and sent to the media by Kruse and Fialko\u2019s lawyers Wednesday (Aug. 13).<\/p>\n

\n\tDespite Lisa Marie\u2019s \u201cclear directive to \u2018prolong her life\u2019,\u201d Kruse and Fialko\u2019s lawsuit claims that Priscilla \u201cpulled the plug within hours of Lisa being admitted\u201d \u2014 so fast that Lisa Marie\u2019s daughter, Riley Keough, was unable to get to the hospital before her mother died.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a response statement, Priscilla\u2019s attorney \u2014 veteran entertainment lawyer Martin Singer<\/strong> \u2014 called the case filed against his client a \u201cdisgusting publicity stunt\u201d and \u201cone of the most shameful, ridiculous, salacious, and meritless lawsuits I have seen in my practice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAccusing a grieving mother of contributing to her daughter\u2019s death is not savvy advocacy; it is malicious character assassination, and should be broadly condemned,\u201d Singer said. \u201cThese fabricated claims have absolutely no validity and we are confident this case will be dismissed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tA spokesperson for Keough also did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But Singer said the actress \u201cstands behind her grandmother 100% and is equally disgusted with this latest, vicious attempt by Kruse to attempt to ruin her grandmother\u2019s life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe new lawsuit and its eye-popping allegations are the latest escalation in a two-year legal battle between Priscilla and her ex-partners.<\/p>\n

\n\tKruse first sued in October 2023, claiming Priscilla abruptly cut off ties after the advisor had worked \u201ctirelessly\u201d to help the nearly-insolvent star \u201cdig herself out of impending financial ruin,\u201d including a $700,000 tax bill. She accused her of breach of contract and other wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

\n\tPriscilla fired back in 2024, accusing Kruse, Fialko and two other advisors of fraudulently taking power over her life \u2014 and then abusing that control to steal her money. Her lawyers claimed the advisors took more than $1 million from Presley and convinced her to sign a deal that would give them 80% of her future income, stating that their \u201creal goal was to drain her of every last penny she had.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn Monday\u2019s new complaint, Kruse and Fialko expand on their previous allegations, claiming they \u201cinvested millions of dollars into Priscilla\u201d and \u201cworked feverishly to maximize the value of Priscilla\u2019s name,\u201d and that she failed to disclose that she had secretly sold off her name rights years earlier. The lawsuit, which includes claims of breach of contract and fraud, says they\u2019re owed a whopping $50 million in damages.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut Kruse and Fialko\u2019s lawyers also leveled the new allegations concerning Lisa Marie, who died in January 2023 of a small-bowel obstruction at the age of 54. Their lawyers claim the elder Presley exploited her daughter\u2019s passing as a \u201csmokescreen to reclaim control of assets she had long since sold, and to erase contracts she no longer found convenient.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe evidence will establish that the real victims here are my clients, who invested millions and years of hard work into revitalizing Priscilla Presley\u2019s brand, only to be betrayed and falsely accused once the money was on the table,\u201d Kruse and Fialko\u2019s attorney, Jordan Matthews<\/strong>, said in a statement Wednesday announcing the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe lawsuit also makes new allegations about the legal battle that erupted between Priscilla and Keough in the wake of Lisa Marie\u2019s death, a case that quickly settled<\/a> with a deal in which Priscilla received a one-time payment of $1 million and $100,000 annually. In Monday\u2019s complaint, Kruse and Fialko claim they brokered that deal, which they say would eventually pay Priscilla $2.4 million in total.<\/p>\n

\n\tShortly after that deal was struck, Kruse and Fialko say the split with Priscilla began. They filed their initial lawsuit against her months later.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Priscilla Presley\u2019s former business partners are firing back at her recent allegations of elder abuse, filing a countersuit that includes the shocking accusation that she \u201cpulled the plug\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7362,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4924,973,6631,4016,6632],"class_list":["post-7361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-cite","tag-death","tag-expartners","tag-lisa","tag-maries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}