How the sports memorabilia industry tries to stay ahead of fraud

Two men pleaded guilty last week to federal charges stemming from a 15-year operation that prosecutors said exchanged counterfeit baseballs and bats signed by Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Honus Wagner and Cy Young.

According to documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, brothers Donald and Mark Henkel, both Michigan residents, each pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud and wire fraud, respectively. Prosecutors had alleged that the men used vintage pens to forge signatures, fabricated evidence and used co-conspirators to pass themselves off as “straw salespeople” who verified the counterfeit items’ history.

In their plea agreements, the Henkel brothers admitted to “devising and participating in a scheme to defraud and obtain money from victims, including art galleries, auction houses and individual buyers… by materially false and fraudulent pretenses and concealment of material facts.” The documents cite instances in which the brothers fabricated proofs of baseballs or bats, which they later sold for approximately $120,000. In total, Donald and Mark Henkel admitted fraudulent conduct that caused financial losses to their victims of $780,000 and $332,500, respectively. (An attorney for a third man facing federal charges as part of the alleged arrangement told ESPN that “there are no changes to the plea currently scheduled” for his client, Raymond Paparella. A status hearing in his case is scheduled for March 11.)

The case is one of several criminal investigations into alleged memorabilia fraudsters that have forced collectibles industry companies to examine and change the practices that ensure the authenticity of items on the market. While collectible fraud is not a new phenomenon, industry experts say fraudsters have taken advantage of the recent explosion in consumer interest in memorabilia since the pandemic, paired with the ability to sell counterfeit merchandise on a variety of platforms.

“We have to be vigilant, we have to be aware,” said Ryan Hoge, president of grading and certification at Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA). “And if [we] Start seeing larger quantities of different styles or something where the style is a little off, we’ll circle the wagons.”

Hoge said that “where there is money to be made,” alleged bad actors will find a way to profit.

Other alleged fraud cases

In February 2025, authorities in Indiana began investigating Mister Mancave LLC, a business founded by Brett Lemieux that allegedly sold counterfeit sports memorabilia through an online store and other means. Westfield Police said they found “significant” evidence at his properties, including documentation and other items related to the counterfeiting operation.

While he was being investigated, Lemieux wrote an online post claiming he had sold more than 4 million items over the past 20 years for more than $350 million.

In the post, Lemieux said he recreated the holograms created by Fanatics, TriStar, James Spence Authentication (JSA), Panini, and Steiner Sports. He also claimed to spend eight hours a day on an Autopen machine, creating fake signatures of Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes, Barry Bonds and Willie Mays collectibles. He said he threw out “80,000” items of Kobe Bryant hoax when Bryant died in 2020.

“Even if he did 10% or 20% [what he claimed]It’s still an insane number,” said Steve Grad, a principal authenticator at Beckett Authentication Services, which agreed to be acquired by PSA’s parent company in December.

Shortly after Lemieux posted on social media, authorities found him dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. Westfield Police told ESPN last week that the Lemieux case is “still being investigated/analyzed” and that they have enlisted authentication companies to review the seized items, which are being held at the department.

Westfield Assistant Police Chief Billy J. “Millions of dollars were sold with potentially thousands of victims,” ​​Adams said. “At some point the intention is to have some victim fund – how this will be operated is still unknown, or whether this is even possible.”

In a separate case, in January 2025 two men were charged with trademark counterfeiting, a third-degree felony in Texas, after Collin County Sheriff’s Office investigators found “bogus certificates of authentication and thousands of sports memorabilia that were misrepresented as genuine” at a home in McKinney, Texas.

According to a lawsuit filed by Beckett against both men in March 2025, Wendell Gideon-Rogers and Lisa Skolnick allegedly produced and sold counterfeit footballs, basketballs, baseballs, helmets and jerseys with counterfeit certification stickers bearing the names of established companies in the industry, alleging trademark infringement and other claims.

Beckett claimed that Gideon-Rogers and Skolnik looked up serial numbers for sports items authenticated by Beckett and recreated those items by forging the athlete’s signature and placing fake stickers with serial numbers found in Beckett’s database. The lawsuit says the individuals used a Ghostwriter Autopen machine, which can be programmed to sign a celebrity’s name.

“The fraudulent scheme to sell counterfeit sports memorabilia bearing the Beckett marks and seals threatens to undermine not only Beckett’s entire reputation, but the entire sports memorabilia industry,” Beckett said in the lawsuit.

In November, a judge in the U.S. District Court for East Texas ordered Gideon-Rodgers and Skolnick to pay Beckett nearly $600,000 in damages and attorneys’ fees.

Attorneys for Gideon-Rogers and Skolnik & Beckett did not respond to requests for comment.

Grad said, “We’re all trying to do better in terms of making sure people know that stuff is real, but guys like Brett and Wendell make a big mess of it.”

Collecting industry response

Chris Ivey, Heritage Auctions’ sports auction director, called these cases a “black eye” for the industry and said his company spends “a lot of time” investigating the memorabilia it consigns. Often this means using photo-matching – a process that matches fibers, threads, stains or tags in historical photography archives – as well as physical inspection and testing of materials and checking autographs.

As a result, about 20% to 30% of autographs do not pass the company’s authentication process and only 50% of game-worn items make it to auction, Ivey said.

“If it’s a game-used item, if it’s going to sell for $4,000 or less, we’re probably breaking even or losing money given the amount of time we’re spending investigating,” Ivy said.

Jason Masherah, president of The Upper Deck Company, said his company spends an “enormous amount of time” monitoring fraud and copyright infringement.

“You’re not just looking at eBay or card shows,” he said. “You’re looking at Facebook Marketplace, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, sending cease and desist, prosecuting fraudsters on a regular basis.”

Leaders of authentication companies and auction houses said they adopt a variety of strategies to combat fraud – sometimes in direct response to recent criminal cases. Protecting hologram stickers is especially important, he said.

“People see that hologram, whether it’s Fanatics or something else, and they’re going to buy [an item] Thinking it’s real,” Grad said.

Zohar Ravid, Fanatics’ president of special business and new ventures, said the company’s fraud monitoring teams identified Lemieux at least two years ago and contacted the markets to close his accounts.

Around the same time, Ravid said, the radicals changed their hologram. He said that Lemieux was not the only reason; The company had identified other potential fraudsters and would have changed its hologram anyway. He added that, according to the company’s information, no one has yet been able to copy the new hologram.

In 2021, Beckett Authentication Services began using tamper-proof holograms, similar to those used by Major League Baseball’s authentication team. MLB uses self-destructing authentication stickers, which leave permanent marks when attempting to remove them.

Masherah said the company uses matching holograms on its collectibles: “One on the item and one on the certificate of authenticity. A large portion of counterfeit items only have the hologram on the item, they never have the matching certificate. If you don’t have both holograms, there is a problem.”

The card grader connects PSA hologram certification numbers to product images; The company photographs every item that comes into its facilities. Yet, to further strengthen the authentication process, PSAs encourage signers to sign memorabilia filmed by company cameras at the company’s headquarters.

“We have a huge library of exemplary signatures so we can compare, look at time periods, [see] How signatures are developed,” Hoge said. “We have tight controls on our materials, we do not use third-party networks – this keeps strict inventory controls on materials that could be used in fraudulent ways.”

The advent of autopen has allowed fraudsters to generate large amounts of counterfeit content. But James Spence III, vice president of the JSA, said AutoPens reproduces counterfeit signatures almost perfectly.

“It can be drawn on baseballs, football helmets, I’ve seen it on golf masters pin flags – and the autograph is perfect,” Spence said. “But it’s not live ink, it’s not hand-signed. We’ve found ways to detect it.

“You sign your name 20 times on a piece of paper and there’s a lot of variation. That’s what we, the authenticators, look for to determine validity in an autograph.”

Other companies have taken a more stringent approach to strengthening certification.

Metabilia, a company that partners with NFL and NBA teams to sell game-used and signed memorabilia, uses tamper-proof stickers equipped with a tiny epoxy disk containing diamond nanoparticles.

“It’s invisible to the normal eye, it’s its own fingerprint,” said Nicole Johnson, co-founder of Metabilia. “It’s indestructible.”

Another company, MatchWarningshirts, partners with soccer clubs – including Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid, Arsenal, Chelsea, AC Milan and Bayern Munich – and several NBA teams to auction off game-worn, signed jerseys to collectors and directly to players. The company uses a chip embedded in the jersey that uploads a digital certificate of authenticity and match-worn information to customers’ cell phones.

One authentication company, The Realest — which was founded in 2023 by Scott Keene, the Los Angeles Rams’ in-house DJ — uses a proprietary chemical solution to identify its memorabilia. Other companies are also exploring chemical strategies.

Nick Cepero, chief executive of Sports Trader Collectables and former head of memorabilia at PWCC Marketplace, said many collectors don’t do enough research before buying. He recalls a house in Texas he visited where, by his estimation, 99% of a collector’s 30,000 signatures were fakes.

“It’s a tough conversation,” said Cepero, the former consignment director of Heritage Auctions. “You look at the receipts: ‘I paid $3,000 for Babe Ruth’s autograph in 1990’ and now the company no longer exists.”

Upper Deck’s Masherah said he is concerned about how bad actors might react to Authenticity’s progress.

“The problem with preventing fraud is that, whenever money is involved, fraudsters are always evolving,” he said. “We think we’re seeing a lot of game-changing technologies… and fraudsters have already developed ways to do this.”