Son of Elvis’s former doctor gets 7 years after bilking investors of $1.4M, prosecutors say

The son of Elvis Presley’s former doctor on Friday was sentenced to seven years in federal prison after he solicited investments in purported cannabis and restaurant businesses, federal prosecutors announced.

Elias Ghanem II, 38, pleaded guilty to a wire fraud charge in February, according to a Department of Justice press release. Along with the prison sentence, Ghanem was ordered to pay roughly $1.4 million in restitution to the victims of his crimes, the release said.

Dr. Elias Ghanem, who died in 2001 at the age of 62, served for years as the house physician at The International, known today as the Westgate Las Vegas, from 1969 until 1976. Ghanem also served as chairman of the Nevada Athletic Commission.

In a phone interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Friday, Jody Ann Erickson, formerly Jody Ghanem, said she wasn’t aware of her son’s sentencing.

“I disowned him long ago,” Erickson said. “I have no idea what he was involved in. I would say that he’s where he belongs.”

The sentence

Ghanem’s sentence was handed down by Judge Gary Brown, a federal judge in New York. It was announced Friday by Joseph Nocella, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York and Christopher Raia, the FBI’s assistant director in charge for its New York field office.

“The defendant received just punishment for defrauding more than a dozen investors, including a retired law enforcement officer whose arm was amputated due to gunshot wounds,” Nocella said in a statement. “Our Office and our law enforcement partners will continue to pursue justice for victims of financial crime who fall prey to individuals like Ghanem who advance their greedy desires at the expense of others.”

Raia, in the release, said Ghanem “shamelessly stole more than one million dollars from investors of his companies to fund personal purchases.”

According to court filings and Ghanem’s own admissions, he solicited about $1 million from investors through a firm called Viva Capital Ventures from September 2018 through October 2019.

Ghanem painted the company as a cannabis distribution and manufacturing firm that he claimed to operate. One of Ghanem’s investors, according to the release, was a retired police officer who forked over $280,000 that he received after he was shot multiple times during an armored car robbery.

The shooting led to the amputation of one of the man’s arms. Instead of investing in his business, investigators said Ghanem “diverted nearly $1 million to fund a lavish lifestyle, including the purchase of a luxury waterfront home in Babylon, New York.

In a second scheme, federal officials said Ghanem solicited about $400,000 from investors through an entity called Friends and Family Hospitality Group. He told investors he planned to use their money to start a New York City restaurant, but instead used about half of the $400,000 to “purchase jewelry and lease a Florida condominium.”

Federal officials said Ghanem also used some of the money he received to repay personal loans, and for restitution obligations that were imposed to resolve prior criminal charges against him in Nevada.

According to Las Vegas Justice Court records, Ghanem was charged with nine felonies in Las Vegas between 2009 and 2021, most of which related to writing bad checks or for having insufficient funds. Most of the charges were dismissed, according to online records.

A search of the Nevada Secretary of State web page showed that Ghanem was listed as the “managing member” for Viva Capital Ventures, a company that was formed in 2019. The web page shows the company’s status as “revoked.”

Death of a king

Presley, one of the most popular performers in American history, died in August 1977 at his Graceland residence in Memphis, Tennessee. He was 42.

It’s been widely reported over the years that prescription drug abuse contributed to Presley’s health issues late in his life, though Erickson told the Review-Journal in a 2012 interview that her late husband was unfairly lumped in with doctors who provided prescription drugs to Presley.

“That stigma has always stayed with my husband,” Erickson said in 2012. “He truly tried to help Elvis, but I think he was so far into his medication that it was difficult.”

In the 1970s, Erickson said, Presley would sometimes stay for weeks at a time at Dr. Ghanem’s home in the Las Vegas Country Club community. Presley famously sold out 837 consecutive performances at The International from 1969 to 1976.

Before marrying Ghanem in 1983, four years after Liberace introduced them, Erickson, 68, was a member of the Radio City Rockettes who performed with Liberace for about eight months. Erickson still lives in Las Vegas.

‘Heartbreaking’

In addition to treating Presley, Ghanem also called entertainers Michael Jackson and Bill Cosby his patients at different times, according to an obituary that appeared in the Los Angeles Times in 2001.

“He treated many celebrities at different times,” Erickson said.

Ghanem was named to the Nevada Athletic Commission in 1987 and presided over the fallout from the infamous Mike Tyson vs. Evander Holyfield fight in 1997 where Tyson bit part of Holyfield’s ear off.

Part of Tyson’s punishment for the incident was a $3 million fine.

Ghanem came to the United States in 1963. He established a Las Vegas practice in emergency medicine in 1971, and developed a string of 24-hour clinics.

Though her son has been out of her life for years, Erickson said the news of his sentencing was difficult.

“His dad was so prominent, this is heartbreaking,” Erickson said.

Contact Bryan Horwath at bhorwath@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BryanHorwath on X.