How a conman exploited America’s obsession with its sports stars

Sports memorabilia is big business in the United States.

Exceptional athletes can attain God-like status very quickly there, and everybody wants a piece.

The baseball that Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers hit for his 50th home run last season recently sold for $4.3 million (€3.7 million).

And if you are into buying sports memorabilia, chances are at some point you logged on to a website called Mister Man Cave, which boasts one of the largest football, baseball and basketball autograph inventories on the web.

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That’s what it looked like, but all wasn’t as it seemed.

During an investigation into fraud and counterfeiting at Mister Man Cave, its owner 45-year-old Brett Lemieux took his own life.

[ The owner of Mister Mancave admitted most of the $350m in merchandise he sold to collectors was not authenticOpens in new window ]

Host Bernice Harrison is joined by Irish Times contributor and America-at-Large columnist Dave Hannigan, who explains that before his death, in a Facebook post, Lemieux spelled out for investigators and sports fans how he had flooded the market with hundreds of thousands of fraudulent sports-related items over two decades, generating hundreds of millions of dollars for his company.

Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by John Casey.