DeFranco News Clips

The Bricks & Minifigs Close Franchise at the Center of Reckless Ben Scandal

Watch the full Daily DeFranco Show: https://www.youtube.com/@PhilipDeFranco?sub_confirmation=1 Get More News Clips: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpLB7kBu9O5dbBKhaIOmqcQ?sub_confirmation=1 Bricks and Minifigs just announced that it’s permanently closing the Salem franchise that is at the center of the whole viral $200k LEGO corruption scandal. Alright, we’re gonna recap this insanity one more time - there’s a guy in Oregon named Bryan Mansell, who entered into a consignment deal with a local Bricks and Minifigs franchise to sell his dad’s $200,000-dollar Lego collection for a 65% cut. But then corporate came in, seized that shop, sold it to new owners — Josh Johnson and Brandon Best — and Bryan’s Lego collection disappeared. With Bryan claiming that the new owners refused to honor his deal and stole the LEGOs with the help — or at least backing — of Bricks and Minifigs corporate. And then YouTuber Reckless Ben stepped in and turned this whole situation into a viral investigation saga. So he goes to Utah to serve legal papers to one of the new owners, Josh Johnson, saying he can’t proceed with the lawsuit until he gets that signature. But Josh won’t accept them, and it sets off this whole battle with the police: Ben gets arrested twice on accusations of stalking, his Airbnb was raided for the missing LEGOs, his car was searched for heroin, he eventually flees to Mexico, and now, Bricks and Minifigs is suing both him and Bryan. And Ben claims this whole thing is a conspiracy between the Mormon owners and the local police, who are also part of the Mormon community. Then there was a leak of unredacted police bodycam footage of several of those interactions — though whether or not it was a true leak is still up for debate. And in some of that leaked footage, we’ve got Bricks and Minifigs CEO Ammon McNeff on the phone with Johnson, claiming that the previous owner of the Salem franchise — Chrystal Law-Gorman — had sold the entire collection and left the country without paying Bryan. And he says he’s been trying to help Bryan resolve that, but then Ben came in and cooked up this whole scheme with Bryan to extort money from the company. But it seems that the company changed its tune — at least a little — because last night, they shared a blog post announcing, quote: “the permanent closure of [the] Salem, Oregon store as well [as] a mutual agreement to part ways with franchise owners Brandon Best and Joshua Johnson due to a devastating social media campaign.” Saying their own internal investigation revealed evidence of “gross negligence” by Chrystal Law-Gorman, as well as “operational gaps during the transition.” And adding that leadership has reached out to Bryan to meet, review what the investigation has uncovered, and come to a solution. With Ammon McNeff — the CEO — saying that the company had been asking Bryan and others for documentation for a long time, and they hadn’t received enough, but now: “thanks to internal and external operations assistance, and those who continue to stand with us, and we finally have enough to proceed with a resolution.” —————————— Produced by: Cory Ray, Philip DeFranco Edited by: James Girardier, Maxwell Enright, Julie Goldberg, Christian Meeks, Matthew Henry Art Department: William Crespo Writing/Research: Star Pralle, Lili Stenn, Philip DeFranco ———————————— #USA #America #BricksAndMinifigs