re: Bricks and Minifigs (Lego reseller), scammed a family out of $200k in legos

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If anything is close to being RICO worthy its the fact the store owner. Corporate CEO, Cops, Prosecutor, and Judge all seem to be working below board just to protect a scumbag trying to extract money out of customers through nefarious means.

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Case snapshot

McNeff et al v. McNeff et al was a short-lived federal civil case in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah, case 2:21-cv-00048. It was filed January 22, 2021 and terminated February 11, 2021, with Magistrate Judge Daphne A. Oberg assigned. The docket classifies it as Nature of Suit 790: Labor – Other Labor Litigation, with federal-question jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1331.

Parties

Plaintiffs:

Ammon McNeff and Matthew McNeff.

Defendants:
Daniel McNeff, Lindsey Thompson, Dave Gibb, Tom Seiler, Seiler Anderson Fife and Marshall, Martin Evans, Kathleen Evans, and Taxpro Tax and Accounting. Justia and PACERMonitor list the same core parties.

Plaintiffs were represented by Cameron Steven Christensen and Steven R. Sumsion.

Docket timeline

The case moved very quickly:

Date Event
Jan. 22, 2021 Complaint filed by Ammon McNeff and Matthew McNeff against all defendants; filing fee was $402. The complaint included a civil cover sheet and Exhibits A–F.
Jan. 25, 2021 Court issued an “Order to Propose Schedule.” Summonses were issued electronically to several defendants.
Feb. 10, 2021 Plaintiffs filed a Notice of Voluntary Dismissal.
Feb. 11, 2021 Civil case terminated per that notice.
What the case appears to have been about

The full complaint and exhibits are not freely visible through PACERMonitor without access/trial login, but search-index snippets from the complaint/exhibits show enough to infer the dispute’s general subject.

The complaint’s Exhibit A is indexed as an arbitration proceeding captioned Ammon McNeff and Matthew McNeff v. Daniel McNeff. A PACERMonitor snippet for that exhibit says: “Daniel McNeff is hereby expelled as manager of Legally Mine effective immediately” and “permanently enjoined from serving as Legally…”—strong evidence that the underlying dispute involved control/management of Legally Mine.

So, the best-supported summary is: this was a federal lawsuit by Ammon and Matthew McNeff against Daniel McNeff and related individuals/entities, apparently tied to a prior arbitration and management/control dispute involving Legally Mine. The federal case itself did not reach a substantive merits ruling; it ended by plaintiffs’ voluntary dismissal less than three weeks after filing.

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BAM Corporate pushes franchisees into default and then takes control of their stores.

I believe this is the major corporate scam at play. They’re using their associates Josh and the other owner to purchase the stores that go into default. They control numerous stores (likely by seizing them in the same way they did with Chrystal’s). It’s essentially a large-scale method to rip off people who invest in BaM. This is the truth they’re trying to hide and cover up. They don’t want this story to gain traction and did everything they could to suppress it. It didn’t work, and the entire operation is going to collapse. This ties into the practices of that Legally Mine business that Ammon was a president of.

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I believe this is the major corporate scam at play. They’re using their associates Josh and the other owner to purchase the stores that go into default. They control numerous stores (likely by seizing them in the same way they did with Chrystal’s). It’s essentially a large-scale method to rip off people who invest in BaM. This is the truth they’re trying to hide and cover up. They don’t want this story to gain traction and did everything they could to suppress it. It didn’t work, and the entire operation is going to collapse. This ties into the practices of that Legally Mine business that Ammon was a president of.

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Besides being subject to potential civil penalties, would that type of corporate practice be illegal?

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