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:

0 members like this

Comment by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on February 6, 2013 at 8:54am: Shawn,

Are you actually Mike Aring?

Comment by Rick Meyer on February 6, 2013 at 9:04am: Shawn,
You let a guy open your car a pummel your friend? What you do just let him? What a pal you are.

Comment by shawn on February 6, 2013 at 9:08am: that's an interesting take Marc. I can personally say that I was out there for Michael for a two week period about 5 months before he passed away. I know Adrian personally, and I never saw him. Not once. The other autograph people that I talk to never saw him either. Not after the point that he started living in the house. He was seen one day, following him around and he actually got him, on 5 items. But it's all hearsay. None of the autograph people care about this site, so they probably don't look at it.
I can also say that people were handing items into the car to Michael personally. Not to one of his handlers, but personally. Then they would follow the car to the Forum and it would all be handed back. Since this was all done in front of Michael, I don't think that he would knowingly allow his guy to pass off a fake. Plus, I saw Michael, with the window rolled down on the freeway, Hold up items in the air at the window, after he had signed them.
But we've all seen "The Bodyguard" and the scene where Whitney Houston passed photos to her friends to sign because she couldn't sign it all. So there's no way I could say, with any kind of certainty, that I would know EVERYTHING that went on.
And yes, the guy did keep some things saying ," Michael wanted this, is that alright?" but again, in the time I saw Michael and the times that others have told me, there was only 1 guy and the driver in the car with Michael and that one guy only at all times.

I would also say this. Most people don't know anything about this site. It doesn't have the far reaching influence it's owners think it has. I only came across it because a friend (who I've mentioned) told me about it being a good site with a bad owner (which I've also expressed my opinion about.). I saw it, it was interesting and I've come on to help and to learn some new things. but MOST PEOPLE have no idea this site exists. Most dealers don't know, unless their name gets mentioned, to which their friends let them know. But most dealers are a naive bunch.

Comment by shawn on February 6, 2013 at 9:20am: you ran into him a few months ago when he told me about this site. Steve, don't get all in a tizzy because now I've called you out. I've perused a lot of this site including old threads. I've seen how you start fights with people then throw them off or completely rip into them. And it's usually after they don't agree with you on something minor. I've watched this latest problem you're having with Brandon and you are calling him a forger and eventually, you'll ban him too. All because he has a problem with how Garry King does things and Garry is your friend. I'm pretty sure that you are lying about the forgery ebay sites about Brandon, just to discredit him and shut him up. That's not right. Dude, you have a HUGE history of being a liar yourself. Do we need to talk about that?
And to Rick. I would just say that when it initially happened, I wasn't IN the car. I was in the Starbucks. But when I came back to the car, I pulled Harold away. Got in and drove off. And I will also say, Harold isn't someone you fight. Because if you win, you lose. He breaks into your house and cuts you in the night. His third strike wasn't the Mike thing, he cut up a guy with a box cutter. It was a guy who won the fight outside a nightclub. But Harold followed him home, broke in, and cut him up while he was asleep. AND, he already had a criminal record for carjacking a little old lady at gunpoint.

Comment by shawn on February 6, 2013 at 9:22am: wow, can't edit my own remarks... the top of my last remark should say "No, I am not Mike. But I have spoken to him a lot recently as I ran into him a few months ago and he told me about this site."

Comment by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on February 6, 2013 at 10:17am: Shawn,

Please post everything you know about the history of lying you claim that I have. As for Brandon, I have proof. And I told him in an email in November how disappointed I was in him, after I gave him another chance way back in 2009. He had spent most of 2012 inciting a member of this site to the point I had to kick the guy off. An OK guy who couldn't see what Brandon was doing.

As for Garry King, the reason he was made the target of discussion back in August is because he is the UK forgery industry's public enemy number one. They have been hellbent on discrediting him for years, and if we don't call out the forgers and forgery sellers after him, the UK will be a free for all.

I have much more I'd like to add to this discussion, but I have a busy work schedule and I'll have to leave for it after my next comment. I may not be back until late this evening.

Comment by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on February 6, 2013 at 10:53am: Brandon, Steve Sipe, regarding Starbite:

Starbrite Autographs was a respected UACC Registered Dealers in entertainment autographs that had advertised in Autograph Collector or many years, long before I bought the magazine. It was owned by Diane and Ron Zimmerman, but Diane was awarded Starbrite Autographs in their divorce. I had heard only good things about them and had not one complaint on file about them.

In 2006, Diane said she wanted to sell the business, and since dealers were moving to the internet and away from magazine advertising, I was interested in buying it to replace declining advertising dollars. We negotiated a deal for the name and the inventory, all which came with the time and place it was signed, and who collected it. And Diane told me that I should use Mike Aring as a supplier, because he was the in-person collector she trusted most. I didn't know Mike, so she either introduced us or gave me his contact info.

All of the inventory offered on Starbrite either was from the 3,000 or so autographs I bought from Diane, or from Mike Aring. I trusted Mike, but I did hear a couple warnings to be careful about him later on, that not everything was good that he claimed he got in person. Roughly 95% of the autographs of Mike's we sent to PSA/DNA came back genuine, though, and no one called out any Starbrite autographs in our ads to us,and we ran 2-4 pages of them most months. I don't recall any guarantee claims for refunds. I'm don't think there was one. But could we have sold some autographs that weren't genuine? Yes, it's possible. I don't study modern entertainment autographs and one of the reasons for bringing Mike in was to cover what I didn't know. That was long before this website and the education I've gotten since.

Every autograph we sold came with a lifetime guarantee of authenticity, which is still valid today, even thought Starbrite isn't open. And as our website and our ads in Autograph said, we would be happy to send any autograph into PSA/DNA for $20, and if it didn't pass we'd pay the fee. Most of our autographs sold for about $50 or less, few over $100, so few people were interested in paying for authentication.

The site went down in 2008-9 due to store software problems and the database corrupted. The software, ASPDotNetStorefront, would have cost many thousands of dollars to get back up and going, so I was going to choose a different solution, but I never got it going. Starbrite was never a big source of revenue for us, though, so it wasn't a high priority.

Just to make it clear: No matter the claims you're hearing from the forgery industry, Starbrite was not closed to clean out forgeries, it wasn't closed by the law enforcement. It's simply untrue. 99% of the inventory is untouched since the site closed down, in storage. If someone wants to set up a fact finding committee to look at the inventory, let me know.

As for the accusations that Garry King bought Starbrite's inventory, that's completely untrue. I have never sold one autograph to Garry King and he hasn't sold any to me. Garry and I are friends because we have the same cause. And that's why we're both attacked so much.

Comment by Rick Meyer on February 6, 2013 at 1:39pm: Don't know Mike Airing other than meeting him on here. But I'd say a 95% PSA pass rate for an in person collector sounds like a stellar return rate to me.

Comment by J.Seah on February 6, 2013 at 1:52pm: I have to agree with you Rick. 95% PSA pass rate is incredible. Just like you, I know Mike through this forum. He has been quite helpful with his knowledge on autographs that he had collected in person.

Comment by Gary Harvey on February 6, 2013 at 2:01pm: Im reading thru some of these postings and Im finding them unbeleivable !

Im gonna think hard and respond to quite a few individually

Im really annoyed at some of the content here !

I do beleive a few truths need to be stated on my behalf about people mentioned on this thread

Please bear with me

Gary Harvey