Autograph Dealer Found Dead After Admitting To Faking Millions Of Signatures—Including Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes, And Kobe Bryant
According to a now-deleted message he posted on the “Autographs 101” Facebook page on Wednesday, Lemieux said he sold over 4 million different items through that platform alone while exceeding $350 million in total sales, and the company supplemented that income by working with “the biggest players in the industry,” including Panini, Fanatics, James Spence Authentics, and Tri-Star.
However, if his admission is to be believed, he was partially responsible for flooding the market with counterfeit signatures (he also pointed the finger at other scammers whose idenities I’ve redacted due to the unsubstantiated nature of his claims) while noting Tom Brady and Kobe Bryant were among the list of notable names at the center of the massive operation.
Lemieux continued by outlining a scheme he said stretched back at least two decades while asserting the vast majority of the signatures credited to Patrick Mahomes and Aaron Judge were also facsimiles of his doing and adding “97%” of Tri-Star’s Tom Brady inventory was forged.
He closed out the message by referencing a raid that the Westfield Police Department executed in Indiana on Wednesday shortly before his body was discovered; according to Fox59, the Hamilton County Coroner’s Office has not officially determined a cause of death, although the outlet reports officers believe it was the result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
For more information see Connor Toole “Autograph Dealer Found Dead After Admitting To Faking Millions Of Signatures—Including Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes, And Kobe Bryant,” brobible.com, July 18, 2025.
Special thanks to David S. Luber (Florida Probate Attorney) for bringing this article to my attention.