Memorabilia dealer found dead after $350 million counterfeit confession

A prominent sports memorabilia businessman was found dead after police carried out a search warrant into his allegedly fraudulent operation on Tuesday.

Brett Lemieux, 45 of Westfield, Ind., was the founder of prominent sports memorabilia site MisterManCave, which he claimed sold more than four million counterfeit items and surpassed $350 million in sales in a 1,200-word Facebook post on the “Autographs 101” group Wednesday morning.

Hours after Lemieux published the post, Westfield police confirmed that he committed suicide by way of a “self-inflicted gunshot wound.”

The Facebook post is no longer live, since Lemieux’s account has been taken down.

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.”

“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.”

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.”