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 Robert McCluskey on February 6, 2013 at 3:35pm: Gary - I honestly don't know, the statement was only concerning the MJ's. I don't know Adrian myself, never met him and hadn't even heard his name mentioned prior to the investigation, so I'm not in a position to comment either way, sorry.

(Hope you're OK btw)

- Bob

Comment by Gary Harvey on February 6, 2013 at 3:40pm: Bob, Im fine and thanks for the quick answer

You obviously know my story and thanks for your concern

Its nothing personal, please beleive me

You did as best as you could humanly possibly do with this and it was a no win situation

Lots of questions to ask / answer

Bear with me and I will bear with you too

Comment by Carl Ryan on February 6, 2013 at 3:42pm: Did a bunch of comments get deleted today? Im having a hard time following things

Comment by Gary Harvey on February 6, 2013 at 3:43pm: Answer 11

Robert McC

' In Person '

What is .....' In Person ' ?

I agree with you 100%

I beleive it means that the item was obtained by the vendor at the event either by himself or by a associate / co worker and the vendor actually witnessed the signing by his very own eyes if it was not collected by the vendor himself

' In person ' does NOT mean

Collected TTM

Obtained by purchasing from another person who stated he got the item

Obtained 20 minutes after a event when the vendor was not present

Obtained from a Associate on the Principle that the Associate is The Worlds Numero Uno / Da Man or

Gods Gift to Autograph Collecting and this Persons word is gospel

It doesnt work like that and we need to clarify this for the future

Hope we can agree on this forum ?

Comment by Gary Harvey on February 6, 2013 at 3:45pm: Carl

sorry bear with me and let me explain

Im answering items as the post runs, from start to finish , sorry to confuse

Hope you can work your way thru it

I will be posting more tomorrow and will endeavor to do them as they appeared

cheers

Gary

Comment by Mike P on February 6, 2013 at 3:50pm: "shawn," I was unlucky because never have a.dealt with Someone who curses me out because I ask if I could return a piece if psa doesn't pass it. Further, when I asked for an exchange or return Since it came back without an opinion, mike claims I ruined his business and says he will refund it if I pay him over 3000$ in "lost business." There's a lot your friend hasn't "told" you.

Anyway, With regard to aftal: Is the group gone for.good or Is it collapsed temporarily? I think some of their members left too but I'm not sure?

Comment by Robert McCluskey on February 6, 2013 at 4:03pm: Mike P - Yes, AFTAL is still live and yes, a number of dealers, including Ken Mills, Andy Hemington and Jason Thanos, have resigned their membership.

Comment by Gary Harvey on February 6, 2013 at 4:06pm: Answer 12

Re Ken Mills meet with Adrian

Here is a bit of a 5 part question answer message, Ken im glad your a lot happier with the outcome to your meeting with Adrian

I bet you were worried ! even at first, I guess you were but it may have turned out better for you, but has it for the rest of us ?

So forum....... are we to beleive the world is flooded with examples of forged Jacksons because they were passed into security by numerous Collectors and Dealers in multiples from Jacksons last days in LA ?

Can anyone advise me if they have the same example of signature from Jackson that has been supplied by Adrian ?

There must be other Collectors who have identical examples

Obviously it was well known you could pass these items into Jackson via his security, its documented and its on you tube !

Where are the other 1 000 ?

If everyone was passing in 40 or 50 per person to his security and there were a lot of followers / collectors at that time doing this, as is documented

Where are all these examples ? There must be other examples out there !

Can anyone supply any of these examples for us to peruse /

thanks

Comment by Carl Ryan on February 6, 2013 at 4:14pm: Shawn, i was about to ask the same question Steve did. Are you sure your not Aring?? You seem to know his answers for all the comments made about him. It wouldnt be like Aring to agree that he deserves to have been booted, but other than that, i would say you were him.

We all know Rogers rep, and if he ID;d Arings MJ as a common forgery, than thats exactly what it was. And i actually didnt here that Aring tried to sell Bruce and MJ forgeries to Steve, from Steve. Ive heard it from several different individuals. I just find it very odd you know so much about Mike and what his ideas and thoughts are on very specific items. And how in the world would you know Mike Aring's thought process and feelings on an order from Mike P. Im sorry Shawn, but i strongly believe that you are mike Aring. But hey i could be wrong. But i need to put aside my dislikefor Aring and stick to the topic at hand.

But as for Steve, you really dont know what your talking about their Shawn. You actually sound just like Mike when you talk about Cyrkin. Steve is the owner of the magazine, and this website is known about and viewed by a huge number of collectors and dealers, especially in the U.S. Thats why when you talk about a dealer/collector/organization on here, they are typically quick to respond. If they dont see it, their customers do, and then they typically contact the dealer. One way or another, the top dealers know about this site and do follow it on some level. It is the best autograph related webstie on the internet today. Does anyone know of a better resource for the community??

Next, Steve may not be an authenticator, but i have actually watched him prove himself time and time again with his knowledge about certain autographs. And i think this whole forum would vouch for that. He isnt some monkey who knows nothing about autographs like you state. Thats either a horribly misinformed statement or an outright lie. And if you have searched the forum as much as you say you have to retrieve all this info about Aring, then you would have seen all of Steve's posts and would know what you are saying is incorrect. And in fact, on autographs like Elvis, the beatles, Springsteen and a few others, i would say Steve is better than most on this forum. Very rarely do his opinions turn out wrong, and they typically are backed with facts and examples. So saying he has no idea what he is talking about seems like an attempt to slander more than an observation. Because an observer will see that he knows quite alot.

Comment by Carl Ryan on February 6, 2013 at 4:28pm: Another question for you Shawn. You say you are a new member and that you were directed here by Aring. You also say that you have searched through the forums and read up on Mike's statements and things concerning him on here.

But the problem is, that Aring has been gone for good while now. and when he left, every single reply of his was deleted. Regardless of the reply, it all got deleted by him, including pictures. So how could you know about his items he posted and the conversations about them, since they have been gone for so long.

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