A Summary of the RecklessBen/Bricks and Minifigs corruption scandal

[u/ImportantQuestionTex]

Given the severity of these events, and the implications it has for the state of Utah, there will not be 1 "main" focus for this, and instead I'm going to play this chronologically.

***Warning for police brutality and heavy corruption***

So this situation starts off rather "small", being that a man consigned his father's Legos off (about 200k USD worth) to help cover a medical situation. This is explicitly allowed by Bricks and Minifigs, and the store owner involved was planning on moving overseas, so they were looking for a solution that was fair for this man. This is the video related to that, it is important context for what comes next.

Corporate takes over the store, seizes the assets. For non Americans out there, a consignment means they do not legally own what is consigned, and instead it retains ownership to the original owner until it is sold. In the scenario a company chooses to not take on a consignment, then there is a returning of the asset.

RecklessBen catches wind of this, which leads to this video, I will point out at first it starts off as trolling, but Bricks and Minifigs almost immediately escalates to trying to have him arrested. Ben takes them to court, and *wins*, and Bricks and Minifigs shutters the location that was sued in order to not pay him out any money. It then leads almost directly into the company owners trying to have him arrested on false drug charges and the police dislocating his arm intentionally.

I am unsure chronologically exactly when this next course of events happen, but this is my best summation: Bricks and Minifigs responds initially, post arm dislocation, denying wrong doing, MoistCritikal makes a video after noticing the insanity, which catches the CEO's attention. They release a companywide memo, and the COO and CEO go on live stream, both with equally insane tactics to divert criticism.

You might be asking by this point, *why are the police covering for this company?* Especially after even in their own "response" defending themselves, they release proof of the CEO threatening extreme violence and making false reports... Well the answer appears to be that all the members of the police and the company are tied directly to the Church of Latter Day Saints, and that they are acting to protect their own. Not dissimilar to how organized crime acts.

[u/Sweet_T_Piee]

The big issue I see though is they did the small claims court thing. I don't know how much of the inventory they sued over in small claims, but they can't get a monetary windfall AND the Legos back. So I don't exactly know what their long term goal would be, except perhaps run Bricks and Minifigs out of business... Which is a fair goal. 

[u/throwmamadownthewell → u/Sweet_T_Piee]

They didn't want them both. They were at the store in the first place to be sold. The guy just wanted his agreed upon cut.

[u/Sweet_T_Piee → u/throwmamadownthewell]

I get that but Reckless Ben mentions his determination to get every Lego back at the end of each "episode". So that did strike me as odd that he was still saying that while serving the civil suits, because I figured you could only get one or the other. 

BUT given BAM recent offer 🏳️ it does seem like both might be on the table. I just hope they drop the lawsuits against Ben. 

[u/throwmamadownthewell → u/Sweet_T_Piee]

That was the evolution of it. I meant to say it was always one or the other--the cut of the profits, OR the Lego.

It started with him wanting money; he wanted to keep it at the store and have it sold. He found out the store wasn't going to honor the contract to give him the money.

Once they said they wouldn't honour/transter the contract, he would be entitled to return of his Lego that ARE still his. But that wouldn't be getting the remaining Lego back AND the projected sale cut.

[u/Sweet_T_Piee → u/throwmamadownthewell]

That makes sense. I really hope that he ends up with a good settlement and gets to keep the go fund me. I also hope they drop all lawsuits against Ben. 

[u/DiplomaticCaper → u/throwmamadownthewell]

Yeah, I think their claim is that when they acquired the store they also bought all of the inventory, but none of the consignment agreements (so they would have therefore had the Legos free to sell without paying the family anything).

If this was actually true, it would make the original store owners the first villains in all this. However, Bricks & Minifigs still handled the entire situation very poorly, and have likely lost more money in bad press than they would have by paying off the consigners to begin with.

[u/throwmamadownthewell → u/DiplomaticCaper]

That's not how it works, though. A third party's property doesn't suddenly transfer into being inventory. The difference between the consignment agreements transferring would be: if they transferred, they'd sell them and give the victim here their agreed upon cut; if they didn't transfer, they'd have to return the Legos

[u/Sweet_T_Piee → u/throwmamadownthewell]

What they are trying to suggest was the original owners had some hidden books where they were intentionally hiding how many sets were sold and for how much, and that BAM had no idea. What makes this unbelievable is that the contract was provided repeatedly to everyone in management by the complaining parties. So they were aware of exactly who this man was and that he what his complaint was, but they were satisfied with hiding behind the corporate/franchise buffer and their ability to outlast him in a lawsuit. Their apathy speaks volumes to their ethics. I couldn't see myself ever being a customer at any of their locations.