Crazy news coming out of Westfield, Ind., as it’s being reported that a well-known sports memorabilia dealer took his own life after confessing to moving hundreds of millions of dollars worth of counterfeit merchandise.
According to The New York Post, 45-year-old Brett Lemieux was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after authorities went to his address to carry out a search warrant following an 1200-word confession in which Lemieux admitted to scamming his customers to the tune of $350 million. Stating that he had sold more than 4 million counterfeit sports memorabilia on a lengthy Facebook post, Lemieux apparently took his own life not too long after confessing his multi-million dollar sin, according to police investigating the case.
The New York Post reports:
Lemieux was able to pull off the alleged large-scale counterfeit scheme by faking holograms, authentication stickers for sports collectibles, of some of the most prominent companies in sports memorabilia: Panini, Fanatics, Tri-Star, James Spence Authentics, Mill Creek Sports and GT Marketing, among others.
Lemieux would use the fake holograms to sell counterfeit memorabilia at a far lower price than market, and he profited handsomely off that tactic.
In the Facebook post, Lemieux said he released 80,000 pieces of memorabilia into the market when Kobe Bryant died in 2020.
He noted that he considered stopping with his operation, but that the money was “too good.”
Interestingly enough, Lemieux developed a reputation for making fake memorabilia and was still able to bank off his counterfeit goods. That shouldn’t be too surprising though, as the man’s operation was straight out of MAGA country where it’s become obvious that they choose to believe something is real even when the evidence says otherwise.
“People have known about this guy. They’ve known his work. They know what he’s been up to,” well-known sports memorabilia expert Steve Grad told WRTV Indianapolis
“He has been at it for years and years. And he’s driven down the price of things. You know, you look at a Tom Brady autograph and Tom Brady’s value is affected drastically by this individual.”
While it doesn’t seem like Lemieux will be missed by actual reputable sports memorabilia merchants, one has to wonder what drove the man to not only confess his lies, but ultimately take his own life shortly afterwards.
Andy Albert, who owns the Indy Card Exchange in Indianapolis, told WRTV his phone was “blowing up all night” at the news.
“He did professional framing services for us probably four or five years ago — never had direct interaction with the memorabilia piece of it. Thank God. Ninety-nine percent of the people in this industry do things the right way. And that one bad apple ruins the entire apple cart. It just infuriates me. Unfortunately, that’s going to have shockwaves for years to come.”
We already wouldn’t trust any authentic sports memorabilia coming out of Indiana (no shots). This definitely doesn’t help.