A Southern California man has pleaded responsible to orchestrating a high-stakes memorabilia rip-off that raked in lots of of 1000’s of {dollars}—and included cast autographs of none aside from Kobe Bryant and members of the Kardashian household.
In line with a report from The Each day Mail, Anthony J. Tremayne, 58, who has since relocated to Mexico, admitted to 1 depend of mail fraud after a years-long scheme the place he offered pretend memorabilia purportedly signed by A-list athletes, musicians, and Hollywood stars. From 2010 to 2019, Tremayne defrauded collectors of between $250,000 and $550,000, falsely promoting the objects as real and even together with bogus “Certificates of Authenticity” to again his claims.
However the sport got here crashing down in 2020, when Tremayne tried to promote autographed Kardashian pictures. What he didn’t know? The customer was an undercover FBI agent. That deal marked the start of the top for his decade-long con.
Tremayne is now going through as much as 20 years in jail and is scheduled to be sentenced on August 11.
The pretend Kobe Bryant memorabilia hits particularly arduous. Since Bryant’s tragic passing in 2020, followers and collectors have held something tied to the NBA legend in reverence. The truth is, his private results have grow to be among the most sought-after objects in sports activities historical past.
Simply final yr, Sotheby’s auctioned off Bryant’s unique locker from the Staples Middle for a jaw-dropping $2.9 million. Utilized by Kobe from the 2003-04 season by way of his last 2015-16 run, the locker had been tucked away in storage throughout a renovation in 2018, solely to be salvaged by a sharp-eyed upkeep employee.
“Kobe Bryant’s locker on the Staples Middle is greater than only a piece of memorabilia; it’s a sacred relic of his unparalleled journey,” mentioned Brahm Wachter, Sotheby’s Head of Trendy Collectables, in a press launch on the time.
Sadly, scammers like Tremayne have tried to capitalize on that reverence, tricking loyal followers and collectors into paying prime greenback for counterfeit objects. This case serves as a reminder that the demand for celeb memorabilia continues to draw unhealthy actors—and that even signed objects with certificates aren’t at all times what they appear.
As we method Tremayne’s sentencing, his story stands as a cautionary story within the wild world of memorabilia gathering—the place the road between fan devotion and fraud might be dangerously skinny.