A Scammer Tried to Seize Graceland. Is This $137.5 Million L.A. Mansion Next?

The owners allege a fraudulent deed was executed at Spelling Manor, putting the property in legal limbo

Sept. 27, 2024 7:00 pm ET

Eric Schmidt, the former Google chief executive, has his eye on one of the most storied private estates in Los Angeles: 120-room Spelling Manor, which is on the market for $137.5 million.

There’s just one problem: The owner can’t legally sell it.

Spelling Manor has been targeted by scammers who fraudulently file deeds on luxury properties, according to the home’s owner, 594 Mapleton LLC. The alleged scammers, going by the names Mirga Phipps White and Nicholas Phipps White, executed a phony deed on the house and recorded it with Los Angeles County in June 2024, the owner says. While the mess winds its way through the courts—which could take months—the property is in legal limbo and can’t be sold.

The house is one of the largest in the U.S.

It was renovated by previous owner Petra Ecclestone.

The home has about 120 rooms.

The estate was built around 1990.

The original owners were Aaron and Candy Spelling.

Photos: The Agency

The Whites deny the allegations and insist the property is theirs. In a bizarre twist, they contend that Spelling Manor was fraudulently purchased with funds stolen from them by “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” cast member Erika Girardi and her then-husband, disgraced former attorney Thomas Girardi. In August 2024, Thomas Girardi was found guilty of embezzling more than $15 million from his law firm’s clients.

During legal proceedings, the Whites have made statements that amount to “bizarre conspiracy stuff,” said attorney Benjamin Wagner of Gibson Dunn, who represents 594 Mapleton LLC. The litigation poses a real threat to a potential sale of the property to Eric Schmidt, who sources say has been circling the property, or anyone else.

Wagner declined to identify the person behind 594 Mapleton LLC, but said of his client’s reaction to the situation: “Frustrated would be an understatement.”

Erika Jayne Girardi and Tom Girardi have featured prominently on the TV show ‘The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.’ Photo: Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images (left); Photo by Joe Scarnici/Getty Images (right)

In a phone call with The Wall Street Journal, Mirga Phipps White said the couple’s claims are factual.

“We’re not the problem. They are the problem,” she said of 594 Mapleton LLC.

Spelling Manor isn’t the only high-profile property to become embroiled in a title dispute in recent years. In August, federal authorities arrested a Missouri woman for allegedly stealing the Presley family’s ownership interest in Graceland, the Tennessee mansion where rock ’n’ roll legend Elvis Presley lived. The woman, Lisa Jeanine Findley, posed as three different people from a fake private lender and claimed the family had defaulted on loans in order to take title to the property, authorities said. She was indicted earlier this month for alleged mail fraud and aggravated identity theft. Findley, who pleaded not guilty, didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Graceland has become embroiled in a title dispute. Photo: Mark Humphrey/Associated Press

Due in part to changes in technology, there has been a sharp increase in title fraud and seller impersonation across the country in recent years, said Sarah Frano, vice president and real-estate fraud expert at First American Title Insurance Company.

In 2023, 28% of title-insurance companies experienced at least one seller-impersonation fraud attempt, according to a recent report by the American Land Title Association.

Located in the Holmby Hills neighborhood, Spelling Manor is one of the largest homes in the world. At around 56,500 square feet, its size eclipses that of the White House. Built in the style of a French château, the property includes a bowling alley, a wine cellar, a beauty salon and a motor court with space to park 100 cars.

The house was built around 1990 by the late television producer Aaron Spelling and his wife, Candy Spelling. Candy famously had three gift-wrapping rooms in the house, saying she found gift-wrapping to be therapeutic.

Candy put the house on the market in 2009 for $150 million. Two years later, Petra Ecclestone, daughter of the British billionaire and onetime Formula One racing boss Bernie Ecclestone, bought it for $85 million and hired a team of roughly 500 workers to complete a massive renovation.

“When you see this property, it’s insane,” Ecclestone’s husband, Sam Palmer, told The Wall Street Journal in 2020. “It always reminded me of Disneyland when we opened the gates.”

Spelling Manor is on the market for $137.5 million.

The property has a tennis court.

Amenities include a bowling alley.

Photos: The Agency

In 2019, 594 Mapleton LLC purchased the house from Ecclestone for nearly $120 million. In the past, local agents have said the owner is a Saudi billionaire.

Spelling Manor went back on the market in 2022 for $165 million. A few months later, Nicholas Phipps White sued Anywhere Real Estate, the parent company of West Coast Escrow, the firm that handled the escrow for the Spelling mansion, alleging a convoluted scheme involving the high-profile Girardis.

Erika Girardi has starred on “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” since 2015, and the couple’s legal and marital problems have featured prominently on the show.

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In sometimes-contradictory legal fillings, Nicholas Phipps White claims he sold a real-estate project to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund in 2016 for $12.7 billion, but the funds were misappropriated by then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin. He claims the federal government then settled with them for $27.8 billion, but that Thomas Girardi, who the Whites say was the government’s attorney for the case, then stole the funds. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund, Trump and Mnuchin didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The Girardis used some of the money to buy Spelling Manor, Nicholas Phipps White says, which he believes makes the property rightfully his.

Nicholas Phipps White’s lawsuit has since been dismissed, with the judge calling the claims “fantastical”; he has since appealed. A spokesperson for West Coast Escrow said the claims are “meritless.”

When asked about the suit by The Journal, Mirga Phipps White made claims seemingly unrelated to the case. For example, she said an attorney for 594 Mapleton LLC had advance knowledge of an assassination attempt on former U.S. President Trump. She copied President Trump’s son, Eric Trump, on an email to the Journal. The attorney said he had no prior knowledge of the assassination attempt.

It isn’t clear if the Whites know or have had contact with the Girardis, who couldn’t be reached for comment.

Earlier this year, the Whites were sued in a separate case that alleged they filed fraudulent title documents for a $55 million mansion in Newport Beach, Calif. The homeowner, U.S. No. 8 LLC, alleged that the Whites tried to gain access to the property. The police were called and an injunction was granted stopping the Whites from entering the home. The case is pending.

“The fact that the Whites are simultaneously claiming ownership of two luxury homes worth almost $200,000,000 while apparently operating their no-asset real estate ventures out of a Post Office Box in Beverly Hills demonstrates the fraudulent absurdity of their claims,” the plaintiff’s attorneys wrote in the Newport case.

Eric Schmidt Photo: Craig Barritt/Getty Images

New technology in the deed-filing process has led to an increase in scams, according to attorney David Fleck, who specializes in title-fraud cases. Thanks to AI and online tools, it’s easier than ever to forge documents, identification and notary stamps online, he said. Most documents can be filed online in many places, so fraudsters never have to encounter a person in real life.

Once scammers successfully file fake deeds, they can try to take out a mortgage on the property, sell it or rent it out. It is up to the true owner of a property to go to court to have it removed, Fleck said. “The county has no idea if you’re telling the truth or the bad guy is telling the truth,” he said. “They’re not set up for that.”

The L.A. area is popular for these types of scams because it has expensive homes unencumbered by mortgages, Frano said. “A lender is just one more person in the transaction who might tip off the real owner that something nefarious is happening,” she said.

The bureaucratic process of cleaning up titles through the courts can take months, and sometimes years in more extreme cases, Fleck said.