Update · August 19, 2026
On May 27, Ammon McNeff personally swore a complaint pleading Bryan Mansell into a racketeering enterprise. On August 19, his company announced it has paid the Mansell family, is dismissing its case against Bryan Mansell, and has issued what it calls an unqualified apology. In the 21 months of BAM statements and sworn filings this site has catalogued, it is the company’s first apology of any kind.
Five days before the apology, Chrystal Law and Ben Gorman, the franchisees BAM evicted from the same store, named Ammon and Matthew McNeff personally in a racketeering count of their own. The loss never changed size. The exposure did.
PRIMARY SOURCE Read BAM’s three documents yourself: the joint statement, the companion FAQ, and the wire release carrying the chief executive’s quotes, all published August 19. This site archived and hashed all three the hour they appeared, against later edits. A note on the word “joint”: the statement and the FAQ exist only on BAM’s site, under the byline of its marketing team. Neither carries a Mansell signature or a sentence attributed to any Mansell by name, and no version has been published by the family anywhere. Every quote below is from those pages, BAM’s prior statements, or the court files.
BAM v. Schneider, Reckless Ben LLC, Mansell and Nguyen
BAM’s own racketeering suit, the one it swore and verified. The statement: BAM and its co-plaintiffs “will dismiss their lawsuit against Bryan Mansell.” It continues against the journalist Benjamin Schneider, his company, and Victor Nguyen, under the July 6 injunction that expressly protects “investigative journalism… criticism, satire, and/or commentary.”
Law and Gorman v. BAM, No. 260200029
Chrystal Law and Ben Gorman’s case, with their company BAMF Salem 1, LLC, amended August 14 to name the McNeffs personally. Not settled, not mentioned. Except one thing: BAM acquired Mansell’s claims under the consignment contract. The contract’s counterparty is Chrystal Law, a plaintiff here; who BAM will point the claims at, it says only as “those responsible.”
“I, Ammon McNeff, individually and in my capacity as Chief Executive Officer and owner of BAM Franchising, Inc., hereby state that I have read the foregoing Verified Complaint and verify that the foregoing allegations are true and correct to the best of my knowledge, information and belief.”
“BAM has issued an unqualified apology to the Mansell family for the losses and pain suffered from the events surrounding this dispute.”
The money moved from the sworn accuser to the man he accused. No-admission clauses are standard, and the statement carries one. It does not reach this: either the verified complaint was true, and BAM has just paid and apologized, without qualification, to a racketeer, or it was not true when the chief executive swore it. The statement’s own explanation for the gap is that the parties have since “developed a more complete understanding of what occurred,” which is a company conceding, in its own words, that the swearing came before the understanding.
“…our goal from the beginning was to help make this family whole regardless of who was at fault.”
The same voice, one phrase, three dates. March 11, on police body camera: “we will figure out how to make you whole.” June 4, mid-lawsuit, on the wire: “ensure you are made whole monetarily.” August 19: “the Mansell family has been made whole by BAM.” Between the first and the last sit the sworn complaint, the restraining order, and 84 days.
The statement says the family “experienced a genuine loss, prolonged uncertainty and considerable frustration.” The loss dates to November 2024. Below, each moment BAM could have paid the family, and what it chose to do instead.
The loss was constant. The choices were BAM’s.
And the phrase for those 21 months, “prolonged uncertainty,” names a period whose prolonging instruments, the suit, the restraining order, and possession of the records, were BAM’s.
BAM posted a second page the same day: a FAQ the press release never links or mentions, self-dated “As of August 19, 2026.” It contradicts the statement published beside it, and the contract BAM filed in court.
“Such side deals are expressly prohibited under the company’s franchise agreements.”
“Additionally, Franchisee may also offer: consignment services, approved themed entertainment services (such as birthday parties, holiday parties, or school events)…”
| Same day, same company | The statement | The FAQ |
|---|---|---|
| Who is released | “any current Bricks & Minifigs franchisee” | “any past or current Bricks & Minifigs franchisee” |
| The consignment contract | An asset: Mansell “has assigned to BAM his claims under the original consignment contract.” | A nullity: a side deal “expressly prohibited,” “not authorized or disclosed.” |
The first row is not housekeeping. The assigned claims run against a past franchisee. If the FAQ’s release is real, those claims were extinguished before they were assigned, and BAM bought nothing. If the statement’s is, the FAQ misstates the settlement’s central term on announcement day. The second row is a company holding a contract as an asset and calling it void, in the same news cycle. And two answers below “expressly prohibited,” the same FAQ concedes the category: “Consignment services are only allowed for” certain partnerships. Never-part-of-the-model, and allowed-with-limits, one page apart.
The FAQ also gives the statement’s missing name: “We believe former owner Chrystal Law-Gorman entered into it as a personal, local arrangement and never informed corporate or the incoming franchisee.” The only hedged sentence on either page, and each half has a recording against it: BAM’s Director of Operations, Ki McAllister, on the takeover-night recording, “assuming responsibility for the consignment agreement”; Josh Johnson, to police, “those were Mansell’s.”
The operators who received the seized store and everything in it: Josh Johnson and Brandon Best, and the entity the statement misnames “Baker Salem.” BAM’s leadership, personally. Every franchisee, current or past-and-current, depending on which same-day page controls.
One person: Chrystal Law, the operator BAM evicted, named in the FAQ (as “Chrystal Law-Gorman”) five days after she and Ben Gorman named BAM’s owners in court. The men in possession since November 14 are released; the woman removed that night carries the fault alone.
BAM, now holding the victim’s contract claims, his records, and his agreed testimony. The target is never named; the phrase is “those responsible.” Two live cases give it two directions: Chrystal Law, the contract’s counterparty, suing BAM in one; Benjamin Schneider, still a defendant in BAM’s own. The claims can be pointed at either.
Release runs forward, to the people who hold the goods. Fault runs backward, to the person who no longer does. The amended complaint calls that order of operations the Fraud Scheme; here it runs in a press release. The pattern is pleaded, not adjudicated; the direction of the arrows is on BAM’s own page.
What happened to the collection. Two documents resolving a dispute about a collection, with no inventory, no disposition, no accounting.
The sets in the cupboard. The roughly 20 Star Wars sets BAM’s own pleading placed in a locked back office a year after the seizure. Unmentioned.
The $38,000 self-credit. The amount BAM told the court it credited itself, against a debt it put at $175,000. Unmentioned.
The number. BAM published three documents naming the released parties, the apology, and the assignment. The one fact withheld is the amount of the check. Its own June 4 wire priced what the check covers: the collection “more accurately estimated at $95,000 to $100,000,” with “more than $52,000” of it sold under the former owner.
The criminal file. Keizer case KZP24020132, the file that holds the operators’ own “missing” call. No private release reaches it.
Both cases continue; only Bryan Mansell is out of them. By BAM’s own page, the family is compensated, released, and out of the line of fire. Taken at its word, that retires an argument BAM has made since May, that the litigation and the coverage were prolonging the family’s pain, and everything that continues now proceeds with no risk to him at all. BAM bought his exit. The exit is also his safety.
The statement closes on a hope.
“The parties recognize that many Bricks & Minifigs franchises and employees had no involvement with events surrounding this dispute and hope that this resolution brings closure to everyone affected and all may return to their normal business activities and personal lives.”
Count who can. Chrystal Law and Ben Gorman return to their racketeering case against BAM. Benjamin Schneider returns to being sued by BAM. Josh Johnson and Brandon Best return to the case that names them, and to no store: BAM announced its permanent closure, and the parting of ways with both men, on the wire in June. Ammon and Matthew McNeff return to a five-day-old complaint that names them personally. The Keizer criminal file stays open. Of everyone the sentence covers, exactly one person can do what it says: the one BAM paid. For the rest, including the company that wrote it, “return” is not a description. It is a wish.
Sources. BAM’s joint statement and FAQ, August 19, 2026, archived and hashed by this site on publication day · BAM’s verified complaint, No. 260402353, and the federal case it became, No. 2:26-cv-00593 (D. Utah), with its July 6 injunction · First Amended Complaint, No. 260200029, hosted as filed, and the full report · The living census · Companion: Choose Your Claim: “Those Responsible”, the assigned claims walked door by door · Also today: Choose Your Claim, the FAQ, fact-checked, and Bryan Mansell did not sign an NDA · Prior reporting: the consignment record, four versions, Bryan Mansell, fact-checked, the loss, priced from BAM’s own spreadsheet, the Keizer police file, the Fraud Scheme, and the racketeering count, episode by episode.
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