Massive forgery bust ‘scary’ for sports memorabilia dealers, scandal expected to have significant impact on hobby
Brandon Steiner has been involved in the sports memorabilia and autograph business for 38 years. He’s seen it all.
But when a massive sports memorabilia forgery ring in Westfield, Ind. was busted by local law enforcement Wednesday, even Steiner didn’t see that coming.
“A couple people have called me this morning and said that they heard some rumbling. I hadn’t heard that,” Steiner told SCD on Thursday. “There were some rumblings around that there’s possibly some forgeries in the marketplace. So, we kind of keep a really close eye on that as stuff is coming in here.”
Steiner, who founded CollectibleXchange six years ago and ran Steiner Sports before that for 32-plus years, was taken aback when he heard about the large-scale illegal enterprise that was taking place in the Indianapolis suburb.
Dealer Brett Lemieux posted an in-depth manifesto on Wednesday in the Facebook group Autographs 101 in which he admitted scamming millions of customers over the past 20 years and claimed he had generated more than $350 million in sales of fake autographs and memorabilia for the company Mister Mancave.
Lemieux revealed in his Facebook post that his business near Indianapolis was being raided by law enforcement. When Westfield police arrived at one location, they found a dead body later identified as Lemieux. According to police, he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The Westfield Police Department released a statement confirming the raids and suicide, which was later confirmed by the Hamilton County Coroner, per cllct.com.
“On Tuesday, July 15, 2025, the Westfield Police Department executed a search warrant in the 16800 block of South Park Drive regarding a counterfeit sports memorabilia scheme,” the statement read. “On Wednesday, July 16, 2025, the search extended to the 300 block of Hoover Street. Upon arrival, officers found the individual deceased with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.”
The investigation is ongoing with assistance from FBI, the statement read. Responding to a request from SCD for more information, a spokesperson for the Westfield Police Depart said more information could be released later this week.
“This guy really had some operation going, and it’s scary to know that somebody can have an operation like that on such a large scale and get away with it for this long,” Steiner said. “It will definitely create a disruption in the marketplace, especially from people that bought a lot of those more expensive autographs, which [Lemieux] was probably focused in on.”
Steve Grad, the principal authenticator at Beckett Authentication and the hobby’s leading autograph expert, believes the massive sports memorabilia forgery bust will have an immediate and long-lasting impact on the hobby.
“I’ve given a lot of thought to this and I think this guy’s stuff is going to live on forever, much like Operation Bullpen items that still exist in our business and the items from the Texas bust that are still out there and being sold and traded,” Grad told SCD. “Immediate impact I think will be significant.
“Can you trust a seller at a show that has player names that this guy forged? Tom Brady? [Patrick] Mahomes? Jordan [UDA)? Can you trust those items moving forward?”
According to Lemieux in his Facebook confession, he forged autographs and holograms from a number of the largest companies in the hobby. That allegedly includes Steiner Sports, Fanatics, TRISTAR Productions, James Spence Authentication (JSA), and Panini.
In addition to Mister Mancave, Lemieux's eBay account, Break The Bank Autos, which was linked to the Mister Mancave website, showed 21,000 items sold through the account through July 17, including autographed items from Hall of Famers like Derek Jeter and Joe Montana and other top sports stars. The account has been removed from eBay.
eBay issued a statement on the investigation on Friday.
“We are aware of an ongoing investigation regarding a sports memorabilia and autograph dealer based in Westfield, Indiana,” the statement read. “eBay has zero tolerance for criminal activity on our platform and will cooperate fully with law enforcement as they investigate.”
A Fanatics spokesperson said the company had never bought any merchandise from Lemieux or the Mister Mancave business.
"Unfortunately, bad actors harm fans and collectors, and that is why two years ago we began implementing the newest, most secure hologram technology available, and we believe our new hologram has not been replicated since,” a Fanatics spokesperson said in a statement. “The best way for collectors to know that they are buying officially licensed, 100% authenticated memorabilia is to buy from a reputable primary source. Fanatics authenticates its own products and uses only licensed products through its partnerships with sports leagues and players associations. We qualify any third-party product that flows through the channels we control and will never stop our pursuit of even greater security measures to protect the best interests of the market and all fans.”
Steiner said he always has a solid grasp on what’s going on with autographed memorabilia having been in the space since the 1980s.
“A big part of CollectibleXchange is that people are bringing us their collections and, yeah, we’re seeing in people’s collections some of the stuff isn’t matching up.”
Steiner places much of the blame on athletes for not understanding the autograph market better.
“I think when I get to the core of the problem, I just wish athletes would understand the market and the business better,” he said. “What happens is when athletes short the market like a [Aaron] Judge, like a [Tom] Brady, or they overcharge dramatically because they want to be the highest price, it’s a huge mistake, because when you don’t sign your autograph, somebody else will. It gives an opportunity for a forger or a scammer to get in the business, because it is so short of it.”
Steiner believes top athletes could help reduce forgery and scams if they would just spend more time signing autographs and getting their signatures on the market.
“Granted, it will ultimately lower the price, but the player will make more money and protect his brand and build his legacy by having more autographs out there,” Steiner said. “I don’t understand why a Brady autograph should be $2,000. So, it opens up the floodgates for somebody to go and see something that looks real for $500. I think players should take a step back and think about this as a real business and treat the market as such.”
Steiner noted that if an athlete sets aside four to five hours per year—signing 300 to 400 autographs each hour—that puts 2,000 more autographed items on the market.
“When you have enough supply and it comes from the right places, it enables people to see that and not eat the forged product,” said Steiner, who has his employees at CollectibleXchange conduct eye-witness accounts on all its autograph sessions.
Steiner has hosted athlete signings for years with big names such as New York Yankees legends Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera. He always encourages athletes to sign more and get their items on the market. Over the years, he has urged players to autograph some less expensive pieces, so collectors know where the less expensive items are coming from.
According to Grad, who is also a co-owner of Grad Collection, NBA legend Michael Jordan is the most forged signature amongst athletes. So, it isn’t surprising that Jordan rarely signs autographs other than for his long-standing, exclusive contract with Upper Deck Authenticated.
In Lemieux’s Facebook post, he wrote: “You will see a boom in bad autographs with good stickers hitting the market like a firestorm.”
But Steiner is confident the market isn’t and won’t be flooded with forged autograph items.
“I think the market is as big and as wide as I’ve ever seen it in all my years, which is why this is really heartbreaking for me,” he said. “The market is strong and healthy, it’s positive. There’s some really good things going on in the business. I can go through a dissertation on some things I don’t like in the business. I think the industry needs better leadership. It’s unfortunate some of the top companies can’t work together. Everyone’s trying to bully people instead of trying to work together. When I was at Steiner Sports, my competitors were always coming to me and telling me things that they thought could be off or wrong in the market. Now, I don’t see that kind of communication available. You can read between the lines on that.”
In Steiner’s eyes, this bust won’t stop collectors from buying autographed items. He just thinks it will drive home the fact that buyers will have to do their due diligence to make sure the item they are getting is legitimate.
“Collectors are fanatical and they want to keep in the game,” Steiner said. “They’re going to be more careful.
“From a selfish standpoint, it’s people like myself who have a huge amount of credibility, that still do signings and sell stuff, it kind of helps me, because people will move to the people they trust. In an unfortunate way, if you’ve been in this business for a long time and been doing the right thing for a long time, this is why you deal with a Brandon Steiner, frankly.
“But I think some of the resellers that have bought from all different kinds of places for different reasons, some of these breaks where they’re buying kind of non-consciously and not from an accountability standpoint, I see these breaks going on where there’s products coming from all different directions. I think it could hurt the breaking business.”
Grad has advice to anyone looking at buying autographed materials.
“Know your stuff,” he said. “Educate yourself and buy from dealers that you can trust. Don’t buy on eBay if you don’t know what you’re doing. Do your research. If a Kobe Bryant signed, certified jersey typically sells for $2,400, don’t think you’re getting something real by paying $800. Education is key.”
It is getting more difficult by the day for law enforcement to crack down on autograph forgers because there are so many items and opportunities out there. Grad said in any collectible industry forgers will survive and thrive.
“One of the biggest marketplaces is eBay and they truthfully have dropped the ball consistently through the years and buckled to pressure from sellers who have complained about items being pulled,” said Grad, who says he has seen Lemieux’s fake items posted on marketplaces for years.
“If eBay had a real set they could have done something about sellers like this years ago, and listened to the public, listened to the real experts but instead have turned a blind eye. Without eBay, for guys like this to survive and thrive it would have really put a damper in his activities. [Lemieux] still would be able to do business, but it would be on a much different scale.”
From what Steiner has heard, this latest memorabilia bust might be just the tip of the iceberg.
“There could be one or two more people that are maybe doing something similar. Just rumors, I don’t know that,” Steiner said. “But there could be another company or two that [law enforcement is] zooming in on that possibly in the same kind of game that this company they zoomed in on this week.”