In the newest chapter of Lisa Marie Presley‘s long-running legal battle with her former business manager, Barry Siegel, the singer is hoping to stop subpoenas for some financial records. Siegel is looking to find out exactly how much money Presley has left from the Elvis Presley inheritance. Presley is the only child of the late legendary singer.
Presley asked the judge in the case to stop subpoenas Seigel’s legal team recently sent to Deutsche Bank seeking “the production of confidential financial records and/or the financial records of the Promenade Trust,” according to recently filed court documents obtained by The Blast. The Promenade Trust is where Presley keeps the money she earns from the Elvis Presley estate.
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According to Presley, the subpoenas are too wide-ranging. They have no time limit for the records, even though she believes the only records relevant are from the years between 1993 and 2006, when Seigel was her manager. She would turn over records from years relevant to the lawsuit, but not for years after 2006.
Siegel could use the records to “divert attention from their own actions and to embarrass Ms. Presley,” the filing reads. She also believes the subpoena could be an invasion of privacy.
For his part, Siegel said Presley’s bank records after she fired him are relevant to the case as they would show how Presley uses her earnings from her father’s estate more recently.
Presley sued Siegel and his Providence Financial Management last year, accusing him of poorly managing her inheritance. She claims her $100 million fortune dropped to just $14,000 and piled up $500,000 in debt. She claims Siegel let her wealth whittle down “through his reckless and negligent mismanagement and self-serving ambition” and invested “in risky ventures in hopes of attaining his own celebrity in the entertainment industry.”
Siegel sold 85 percent of Presley’s interest in Elvis Presley Enterprises, putting “his own best interests ahead of her in order to put himself in proximity to [an investor] and his celebrity circle,” Presley claims.
The investment did not work out, so he allegedly started selling other Presley assets. She claims Siegel even used the trust’s money to pay for a $9 million home in England.
Siegel later filed a counter-suit against Presley for $800,000. He claims Presley was behind her own financial troubles.
“It’s clear Lisa Marie is going through a difficult time in her life and looking to blame others instead of taking responsibility for her actions,” Siegel’s attorney told The Blast. “The 2005 deal she is complaining about now cleared up over $20 million in debts Lisa had incurred and netted her over $40 million cash and a multi-million dollar income stream, most of which she managed to squander in the ensuing years.”
“Sadly, since inheriting her father’s estate in 1993, she has twice squandered it. The first time, she was rescued from insolvency by a deal she now calls fraudulent and self-serving,” Providence Financial Management claimed in court filings.
Providence noted that the Presley estate was in financial ruin at the time of Elvis Presley’s death in 1977, until Priscilla Presley brought in a CEO to manage Elvis Presley Enterprises and turned Graceland into a money maker. Presley’s “continuous, excessive spending and reliance on credit far exceeded what the Trust could pay her from income alone,” Siegel claims.
Presley is also facing a tax lien from the California Franchise Tax Board. They claim she owes more than $400,000 in back taxes from 2016 and 2017.
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