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 11, 2013 at 5:42pm: Your right Gary. Seems the McCartneys have been fogotten. Hopefully they get revisited.

Comment by Carl Ryan on February 11, 2013 at 7:09pm: Shawn,

You are just trying to backtrack now and make up stuff. And i can go back through your comments and point that out if you want. First of all, it was you who used the term "run in" about Aring. You claimed earlier that you just happened to run into the guy and that he told you his life history about autographs. So now you have changed the story to you were at his birthday party??

At first th excuse was that Mike took you into his house and showed you around and you two set around and talked about all the autograph questions that could possibly be asked on this site. Now its you set out in your car together???

And what about your lie that you are living in a different city, when in reality your IP comes right from Mike arings home town.

You keep getting caught in your lies buddy, but keep it up. Your just making yourself look more foolish for either being Mike Aring or being telepathically linked to Mike Aring. Since you both seem to share the exact same thoughts and knowledge about everything.

Comment by Gary Harvey on February 12, 2013 at 12:43pm: Shawn

sorry i dont remember you but obviusly we met if you can remember me

Are you in LA ?

Im over in Sept this year

Hoping all is well

Gary

Comment by Gary Harvey on February 12, 2013 at 12:49pm: Rick

The Maccas were covered pretty well by Roger Epperson. I have a theory on them , but Im not saying at this moment.

I do know Ken Mills stated he returned his to Adrian, but there are a lot more.

Hopefully the truth is out there !

Comment by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on February 15, 2013 at 3:03pm: Rick,

I deleted that comment.

Comment by Rick Meyer on February 15, 2013 at 3:13pm: I figured it would Steve. Just thought it was funny........

Comment by Gary Harvey on February 15, 2013 at 4:15pm: I thought it was funny too,

I think we really need to close this thread down Steve

Forget about it and wait for the dubious items to slowly appear and deal with them individually

Some big shows coming up in the Uk soon, I will have a look at the stalls and lets see what turns up

Comment by Carl Ryan on February 15, 2013 at 6:12pm: I have a few questions, im not sure if anyone can answer them, but thought id ask.

1.) How long does a gag order last?? Does it have an expiration date, or is it a case by case thing? Surely they cant last forever.

2.) Has anyone filed charges against Adrian or Dominic?

3.) What has been the latest attitude towards these 2 individuals. The appropriate action would most definetly seem to be to kick these 2 guys to the curb and blacklist them at the very least. I honestly cant imagine any one member of AFTAL actually staying with the club if these 2 are allowed to be associated with it in any manner.

4.) Is Dominic Manning still in charge of AFTAL??? If so, what do the AFTAL members who want to keep AFTAl around think? Surely their can be no new AFTAL with Manning in the organization in any manner. What are the members of AFTAL saying?? They may not be able to comment on what was found out about Manning and Adrian, but i would think they can speak their minds on the organization. I would think that if the members of AFTAL boycott and threaten to never return unless Manning is kicked out once and for all, that things will start to happen.

People really arent considering keeping their memberships as long as Manning is involved in any way are they???? At this point it seems that he isnt going to be punished for his wrong doing in the legal system, but surely the AFTAL members can use their powers to get him out. AFterall, their is no aftal without paid memberships. Take all that away, and the power is left square in the hands of its members.

This cant be allowed to just go away. Has Manning resigned??? have the board members met with Manning to discuss terms?? I mean at some point in time, he is either going to have to step down and leave, or be kicked out. That is if AFTAL is going to recover from this. If Manning is allowed to stay in charge then incidents like this will happen again.

Comment by Rick Meyer on February 15, 2013 at 7:03pm: Good questions Carl

Comment by Rich on February 15, 2013 at 7:06pm: Isn't the best solution now just to walk away from AFTAL, let it die and focus on starting a new organization that excludes the worst offenders in this whole mess?