Priscilla Presley Legal Battle Turns Ugly as Ex-Partners Make Shocking Claims About Lisa Marie’s Death

Priscilla Presley’s former business partners are firing back at her recent allegations of elder abuse, filing a countersuit that includes the shocking accusation that she “pulled the plug” on Lisa Marie Presley against her late daughter’s wishes.

A year after attorneys for Priscilla (Elvis Presley’s widow) sued Brigitte Kruse and Kevin Fialko over claims that they schemed to “prey on an older woman,” lawyers for the two ex-advisors say they’re the real victims — of a “smear campaign” designed to avoid paying them for their work on her behalf.

In a stunning allegation included in the new case, Kruse and Fialko’s lawyers claim Presley “ignored the warning signs” just before Lisa Marie suffered cardiac arrest in January 2023 and then removed her from life support prematurely amid a struggle over family finances.

“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,” according to a copy of the lawsuit, submitted in court Monday (Aug. 11) and sent to the media by Kruse and Fialko’s lawyers Wednesday (Aug. 13).

Despite Lisa Marie’s “clear directive to ‘prolong her life’,” Kruse and Fialko’s lawsuit claims that Priscilla “pulled the plug within hours of Lisa being admitted” — so fast that Lisa Marie’s daughter, Riley Keough, was unable to get to the hospital before her mother died.

Priscilla’s attorneys in the previous cases, including powerhouse Hollywood lawyer Martin Singer, did not immediately return a request for comment from Billboard in response to those allegations. A spokesperson for Keough also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The new lawsuit and its eye-popping allegations are the latest escalation in a two-year legal battle between Priscilla and her ex-partners.

Kruse first sued in October 2023, claiming Priscilla abruptly cut off ties after the advisor had worked “tirelessly” to help the nearly-insolvent star “dig herself out of impending financial ruin,” including a $700,000 tax bill. She accused her of breach of contract and other wrongdoing.

Priscilla fired back in 2024, accusing Kruse, Fialko and two other advisors of fraudulently taking power over her life — 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 “real goal was to drain her of every last penny she had.”

In Monday’s new complaint, Kruse and Fialko expand on their previous allegations, claiming they “invested millions of dollars into Priscilla” and “worked feverishly to maximize the value of Priscilla’s name,” 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’re owed a whopping $50 million in damages.

But Kruse and Fialko’s 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’s passing as a “smokescreen to reclaim control of assets she had long since sold, and to erase contracts she no longer found convenient.”

“The evidence will establish that the real victims here are my clients, who invested millions and years of hard work into revitalizing Priscilla Presley’s brand, only to be betrayed and falsely accused once the money was on the table,” Kruse and Fialko’s attorney, Jordan Matthews, said in a statement Wednesday announcing the lawsuit.

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

Shortly after that deal was struck, Kruse and Fialko say the split with Priscilla began. They filed their initial lawsuit against her months later.