Mass Resignations, Lives Threatened as AFTAL is Hijacked During Behind the Scenes Forgery Investigation

Formed with the stated goal of stamping out fake autographs, AFTAL, the Autograph Fair Trade Alliance, attracted many of UK's and Europe's most reputable dealers as members. But while the vast majority of AFTAL dealers lived its stated goal, including a recognized expert used by law enforcement to testify against the forgery industry, AFTAL's two primary founders, Dominic Manning and Marc Mclennan, used it as cover to sell and authenticate thousands of forgeries. Manning has seized control of the organization after an AFTAL steering committee found that he sold hundreds of fake Michael Jackson autographs he claimed to have gotten in person. And like a mansion built on quicksand, AFTAL is crumbling.

As the legally listed head of AFTAL, Manning, owner of Behind the Scenes Autographs, disbanded the steering committee last week that was formed in December by boardmember Garry King after Manning and another boardmember were forced to resign. Manning then reportedly had AFTAL's lawyer slap a suppression order (gag order) on the former members of the committee, forbidding them to talk publicly about Manning's actions or their determination that the Michael Jacksons Manning sold were forgeries.

In the UK, even revealing that you are under a suppression order can have you held in contempt of court, so little information about it has come out and no public documents appear to be available. But the sudden silence of former steering members who used to speak to me confirms its existence in my mind.

Events have taken a violent turn. Several autograph dealers have reportedly been threatened by Manning or the source of the forgeries, Adrian Longden, and police reports have been filed. At least one victim is in fear of his life.

Roughly a third of AFTAL members have resigned or are in the process of doing so, and many more are anticipated to resign as they hear about the scandal.

Stay tuned for more. Autograph Magazine is preparing a list of current and former AFTAL dealers considered reputable. Please message me if you would like to be considered for this list.

For more details on AFTAL's actions and the Dominic Manning/Adrian Longden forgeries, read the following Autograph Magazine Live! discussions:

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Comment by Rick Meyer on February 7, 2013 at 6:02pm: I agree Rich. Why now did Adrian do this? He knows about all this going on here. Why wait until now? Probably knows everyone except for Dominic and AFTAL know his junk was fake and he is a lying crook.

Comment by shawn on February 8, 2013 at 10:53am: @Gary Harvey.
I know you. Well, it's been some time but I know you, have met you, we've hung out together (again, with Mike Aring). And I know you to be an honest and trusting soul. I Iwas unaware that the threats were on YOU. So I apologize for questioning it as I do see you as nothing but an honest person. I am sorry that this has happened to you and that you are in harm's way in any case. That seems so wrong. But yeah, after seeing all this stuff go down, just on this site, I hope that the police in your area can sort it out. Threats actually should open up the bigger can of worms out there if the police do their job. Maybe during the investigation the question should be asked," Why are these threats even been made?" And then with some careful sleuthing, they should be pointed to this site and ALL the old questions about the forces throwing the problems at you and something hard should be deduced.
In the land of Sherlock Holmes, I would think that this is the way it should all end up. I really hope that nothing further than threats will come of this for you! I wish you the best. and again, I am sorry.

Comment by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on February 9, 2013 at 4:57am: Shawn,

Are you absolutely sure you're not Mike Aring? You sound just like him and you signed up and log in from a Columbus, Ohio IP address, where he lives. Not St.Louis, where you say you're from.

This is pretty important, since you vouched for the authenticity of a Nirvana-signed magazine Mike sold a member here.

Comment by Gary Harvey on February 9, 2013 at 8:25am: Shawn

Hello ! Im not 100% on you, as I met a few of Mikes friends whilst in LA, Are you an Aussie ? or are you Zack ?

Im confused lol

Yes, I have no need to lie and I told the truth. I was visited and threatened to keep my silence and although I was shocked at first, I called the Police and they are dealing with this idiot here

I dont wanna go into much till the Police advise its sorted

But I still cant beleive what is a hobby for some and enjoyable for others now has become cloak and dagger and serious money. Its silly and too be honest im a little dissalusioned

Comment by Carl Ryan on February 9, 2013 at 12:46pm: Its pretty obvious that Shawn is Mike Aring. Its either that, or he has a psychic link to Mike Aring and in their "run in" with each other Aring just happened to spill his guts about his entire experiences collecting autographs. Remember Shawn claimed that he just ran into the guy, and all his info about this site came from that run in. Then suddenly Aring hands him a disk containing all sorts of past autograph info, shows him around his home and explains his collection. He then is somehow able to predict exactly what people will say should he become a member. He even has the forthought to tell him about every customer he has had.

Then Shawn comes on and claims that he has been reading about how everyone wants Aring back and that he has been reading up on posts by Aring. Yet all Arings posts were deleted long ago, and Shawn only became a member on saturday. Maybe this is what was on that flash disc he obtained from Aring. Pretty conveniant huh.

Then out of nowhere Shawn starts blasting Cyrkin. Yet he doesnt have the intelligence in autographs to even research his own false statements. Everyone on this board, and i dont care who you are, if you have read some of STeves responses, you know that he is quite knowledgeable about autographs. On certain autographs he is better than Aring every dreamed of being. And aside from "Shawn", i dont think their is one person on this board who would come close to agreeing with him. I would even wager to say that Steves enemies wouldnt makes such a foolish statement that he knew nothing about autographs. When all the evidence points to the contrary.

Shawn claims that he knows Cyrkin has no knowledge in autographs by reading his posts. Yet this doesnt add up. B/c all steve's posts point directly to the contrary. Not only that, but pretty much every commentors posts point to the exact same thing. And yet we know for a fact, the things Shawn is stating are almost word for word what Aring was spouting the last time he was on here.

Bottom line, Shawn is most likely Mike Aring. And i actually hope he is, b/c if hes not, he is just a clueless crony of Arings who is laughable at best. Shawn, you say that you can claim that i am Steve. Well yes you could, but their is a big difference. I dont know what Steve is thinking, i never bumped into steve and had him tell me the story of his life including every autograph transaction ive ever had. Ive never been to STeves house, nor do i know whats hanging on his walls. So your argument holds no water.

You claim that Steve showed all this love and praise to Mysinger and loved him like a son, yet this is far from the truth. and if you read the posts on this site you would see that, and that you are absolutely incorrect. Steve has gone out of his way to promote brandon in a sense. Steve has always recommended Brandon as the best in Nascar and that people should ask him. He has praised Brandon s authenticatiosn for Global and they used to agree alot more than they do now. This is all true. But absolutely no where does Cyrkin spout love for Brandon. Nowhere does Steve fawn over Brandon or treat him like a son. Thats total rubbish. Yet that is exactly what mike Aring has said in the past.

Your statements dont really have any validity at all. And im not trying to bait you, im just telling you that your wrong and that you dont have a clue about what you are saying. Its that simple. And like i said, i hope you are Aring. B/c if your not, then you must be obsessed with the guy. How else would you know all his thoughts, know all about his past unhappy buyers, know about the forgeries he tried to sell steve, etc. It makes no sense, and it is absolutely obvious that your motive here is to slander Steve.

And why would i go to ANL?? For calling you out b/c your statements dont add up. For dispelling the info you are giving out. For telling the truth? ANL is a site full of those who slander others for their own purposes, and as far as ive seen, that is all you have done when it comes to Steve Cyrkin.

As time goes on, i have full confidence that Steve will figure out that either you are Mike Aring or some other person who has a vendetta against him. and their are many.

Comment by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on February 9, 2013 at 2:18pm: Ken,

I'm way behind here due to other business obligations, so I apologize for replying to your Tuesday comment so late. For your and your customers' sake, please don't depend on what Adrian Longden has told or tells you about any autograph without trustworthy independent confirmation or opinions.

I don't have the time to look up every Michael Jackson image and mention on this site, but I have checked with many in person collectors who got Michael Jackson his last several years. Not one of them got any autographs that look like the ones Adrian Longden has sold or offered, and most of them would give Jackson photos to sign out of their sight as he was being driven from place to place, too. All of those autographs look just like the ones he signed in front of them.

And it is simply not plausible that hundreds of these autographs that Adrian now claims must have been signed secretarially have been hidden away for the future by numerous collectors, as he told you. Many would have been on the market the moment word got out that Jackson died, and most would have been offered for sale by now.

If Adrian thought they were genuine, why did he offer them so cheaply? Adrian offered Roger Epperson's customer Michael Jackson signed photos for only $250...some also signed by Slash as I recall. And the McCartneys were equally cheap compared to genuine ones.

One of the things I admire most about Englishmen is their sense of fairness, and their loyalty to friends and associates. I think that is part of why the Longden/Manning fiasco has gone on for so long—it's hard to believe that your friends would screw you over so badly. And in the case of Manning, thinking that he'd put the entire AFTAL organization at risk was once beyond consideration by most AFTAL members.

But I promise you, as convincing as Adrian was and how much you want to believe him, he is not telling you the truth. The Michael Jacksons he sold were not acquired how he claims they were. What he has told you is simply impossible.

Comment by Brandon Mysinger on February 9, 2013 at 7:41pm: Ken, when you two met, what autographs did you receive "in-trade" for the bad autographs you had gotten? Aren't you concerned about those too?

Comment by Rick Meyer on February 9, 2013 at 8:27pm: I wouldn't have taken autographs in trade. I'd want my money back. I wouldn't touch anything Adrian had......no matter how good all these folks swear he USED to be.

Comment by Grant Davis on February 10, 2013 at 4:38am: Once you have lost your credibility it is damm near impossibe to get back?

BUT who out there has NEVER made a bad call!!! (i am not referring to acknowledged or 'knowingly done so' frauders/forgers/rip off artists!)

Comment by Carl Ryan on February 10, 2013 at 4:23pm: Grant, are you talking about Adrian when you talk about someone making a bad call?? Because this is no mistake made off of trust or misinformation. This is a deliberate attempt to pass off fake autographs. Their can be no apologizing for it, or trying to rationalize it into something that its not. Fake autographs were obtained and sold, and the evidence shows that the guilty parties knew exactly what they were doing.

Not only that, but if someone even thinks of believing anything Adrian and Dominic say, they are very very foolish. Their whole autograph career at this point more than likely is over, and that means a huge loss in profit. If someone is willing to lie and deceive others to pass fake graphs and get money, then most certainly they will do anything under the sun to prevent that money from going away. Apologizing at this point is most ridiculous and even extremely arrogant. If any trust is given to these individuals and they are allowed to come out of this with their credit in tack, it will be the biggest blunder in recent autograph history.

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