Brett Lemieux came onto Fanatics’ radar years ago as a potential sports memorabilia counterfeiter. The company told The Athletic it even altered its authenticity hologram sticker two years ago in part because of Lemieux’s alleged activities.
Fanatics conducted several “test buys” of supposed autographed items from marketplace accounts set up by Lemieux, the company said, in order to build a counterfeiting case to present to Westfield, Ind., police and the FBI.
The situation turned deadly Wednesday when police found a man with a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the midst of executing a search warrant involving the counterfeit scheme, according to a statement from the Westfield city government. The Hamilton County coroner’s office confirmed to several Indianapolis media outlets on Thursday that it was the body of the 45-year-old Lemieux.
Someone posting under Lemieux’s name shared a lengthy message on an autograph collectors Facebook group called Autographs 101 earlier this week, claiming to have sold millions of counterfeit items and created millions of fake authentication holograms and stickers, along with other forgers, through a company named Mister Mancave.
“There will be photos of this bust I’m sure of it,” the message said. “If it was (F)anatics they may try to bury it all but the Westfield police department came today at 9am with semi trucks. I hope no one tries to hide this. I want to expose it all and how big of an operation you all knew was going on but grasp how big it was. I wish I could write a book about this.”
Mister Mancave, the website Lemieux referenced in his 1,000-word social media post, bears thousands of alleged authenticated autographed items up for sale. The eBay account (Break The Bank Autos) linked to the Mister Mancave website showed 21,000 items have been sold through the account with 24 items up for sale as of Thursday morning. By midday, eBay had removed the page from the website. The items posted were all autographed items ranging from Hall of Famers like Derek Jeter and Joe Montana to current stars like Lamar Jackson, Ja’Marr Chase and Alex Ovechkin.
Some of the items listed on the Mister Mancave website.
“We have an entire team that includes former FBI agents that are out there going after bad actors like this one,” said Zohar Ravid, Fanatics president of specialty business and new ventures, who also disputed the numbers in the Facebook post. “We’re constantly monitoring what is happening in the ecosystem, especially in the marketplaces. And so we were able to follow this guy. We knew about him as long as seven or eight years ago at this point. … Our No. 1 concern is protecting the market, protecting the fan and ensuring that good actors like ourselves and other players aren’t being hurt because of a few bad apples in the ecosystem.”
eBay issued a statement to The Athletic on Thursday saying, “We are aware of an ongoing investigation regarding a sports memorabilia and autograph dealer based in Westfield, Indiana. eBay has zero tolerance for criminal activity on our platform and will cooperate fully with law enforcement as they investigate.”
According to the Westfield city statement, police first executed a search warrant regarding the scheme on Tuesday on one property. The warrant extended to a second property on Wednesday, and officers found a deceased individual while conducting the search. The FBI is assisting with the investigation, according to the statement.
In 2013, following a lawsuit brought by the Indiana attorney general, Lemieux was ordered to pay restitution to customers who bought sports memorabilia from his businesses that they never received.
Fanatics executives said employees bought items off Mister Mancave marketplace pages throughout the year to build a case, rather than through the actual website. The homepage contains links to Amazon and eBay pages associated with Mister Mancave.
The most recent test buys ramped up within the past three months, according to Fanatics. The company targeted the marketplaces for sales so the company could show the marketplaces the results of the test buys.
The Facebook post attached to Lemieux claimed “millions upon millions” of counterfeit autographs, authentication holograms, and certificates of authenticity not only with Fanatics but a variety of other major sports memorabilia companies. The post said an autopen machine was used to produce the fake signatures, and actual athlete autograph signings were used as cover for the fake merchandise, with the operation dating back 20 years. It highlighted Kobe Bryant, Tom Brady, Aaron Judge and Patrick Mahomes as some of the athletes whose autographs they faked the most over the years.
“There’s numbers being thrown around, the numbers he threw around,” Ravid said. “If the numbers were real, we wouldn’t have waited years to put that much pressure on. These aren’t the numbers. It’s grossly exaggerated to make a statement. The problem is real. The extent and the scale of it is less than what is being presented, but it is symbolic of what is happening in the industry.”
It’s the second time this year Fanatics officials say the company played a role in helping authorities in a fake autograph and memorabilia case. Fanatics officials said the company aided law enforcement leading to a January arrest of Wendell Gidden-Rogers and Lisa Skolnick from McKinney, Texas, who were charged with trademark counterfeiting.
(Top images: Mister Mancave)
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