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 Steve Cyrkin, Admin on February 6, 2013 at 10:49pm: Brandon:

I only skimmed the article on ANL but it's unlikely the ads were manufactured by ANL. The ads look like ones we published but I didn't check.

Comment by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on February 6, 2013 at 10:59pm: Carl,

I did not delete any comments, but I don't know if anyone deleted some of theirs.

Comment by shawn on February 7, 2013 at 9:23am: @Carl, @Steve Cyrkin.Wow, I find it funny that folks would even dare think I am Mike. I'd like to just stick to the topic and I do apologize for ripping into Steve in this particular thread.

As I was trying to say. I was one of Mike's best friends FOR YEARS. From the time we were in college through a couple of years afterwards. We had both talked about moving to L.A. just so that we could hang around recording studios and get bands as they came out. But to me, ebay literally ruined the good business that we had. Not with just the forgery problem, but it brought out the "collectors" by the truckload.

Some stuff we didn't agree on, I didn't want to do NASCAR stuff and I wasn't particularly hip on spending most of my time doing actors and actresses. PLUS, he wanted to work on movie sets because he was already doing that after he broke his arm and had to quit school. But we were gonna run a business together. When I moved back home instead of moving to L.A. with him, we kinda lost touch. I came to L.A. for the hockey all star game and that was about the last time I saw him.

BUT, when I did run into him a few months ago, the guy wouldn't shut up. I told him that I'd be interested in doing music again. He started telling me who was tough, who absolutely didn't sign etc. and that's when he pointed me to this site. He told me there were fairly knowledgeable people on here and that some could help with finding some rarer folks. I was in his house with his family and he was showing me some of the last things he got while in L.A. while just constantly glowing about this site... THEN, he told me he was kicked off. For basically fighting with Steve over Steve's problems.

He told me a good deal as I stayed at his house for the night, staying on the couch, as it got really late and the drive back to St. Louis is like 7 hours. He told me about the problem with Mike P (he didn't tell me who it was exactly, just some guy named Mike.). He told me about his fight with Steve over a Metallica item AND he told me about Steve and the Michael Jackson album that was sitting in his living room. He also told me all that stuff about Steve and his power trips, how he's kicked a few other people off just for disagreeing with him. Finally, he told me about the Garry King situation.

And I've been talk to him ever since.

As for everything else. He actually mailed me a zip drive coming to the defense of Steve and Starbrite. I guess there's another site called ANL where there's dealer's who constantly rip Steve. One particular post in fact, that Mike has actually went through every argument that this site has. Complete with the examples shown, and nitpicked at every single item that the original post had. I have to say, it looks like a lot of work. He added other examples and the examples posted in the ANL site, he posted the original scans. So everyone can see them full sized. He even posed and argument because he didn't not supply Starbrite with some Tom Cruise items. He says he knows where Steve bought them AFTER he and Steve dissolved their partnership etc. He provided information on a Sam Jaber. I mean, it's all in there. I had actually thought about posting this for everyone to see. And Mike actually asked me to. But right now, I see no point. As Mike says, this will all add up to more noise and the problems won't really get fixed.

As for the Steve problem. I think it's a real problem too. There's TONS of spots on this site where Steve spouts his love for a guy named Brandon Mysinger. Tells people to talk to him about NASCAR items, Harrison Ford items etc. I mean, it's glowing. If I didn't know better, I wlould think they were related. Then, a few days ago... BAM! Steve's calling him a forger with M tion comes almost immediately after Brandon disagrees with him. You can actually find these arguments all over the site. Some guy named DB, Mike (yes, you can't see Mike's comments. But you can see where Steve got all defensive and name calling), and now Brandon (there's a few others too, but I can't continue to follow all the threads. I am telling you, just based on what I have read here... Steve, is not a good person. It appears that he uses this site to come off as an expert. That he NEEDS approval from some community and this is the one he has chosen. He's not an enthusiast as he claims to be. He wants to be the authenticator. And he wants a bunch of people whom he's never met, to believe every word he says and to take him as the defacto authenticator. This is why he's getting ripped on those other sites.

And finally. He truly knows nothing. Sure, his knowledge has increased significantly with owning this site. But I've seen the AML arguments and perused around this whole site. There's a Charlton Heston secretarial thread that's pretty long on here. Yet, right in the ads shown in the ANL there's a FEW of those same Charlton Heston autographs right in the Starbrite ads. With that "Chall" signature that I see referred to time and again.

So, here's what I was trying to say yesterday and now today. Steve's literally in the same boat as Garry King... To me anyway.. YOU CAN NOT AUTHENTICATE OR TEACH PEOPLE TO AUTHENTICATE ITEMS IF YOU CAN NOT EVEN AUTHENTICATE THE ITEMS IN YOUR OWN INVENTORY. I think that's as point blank as I can be. Yes, some people can make mistakes. But those mistakes are amplified 1000 fold when the forgery baiters and forgers are out for blood. So, with those two MAJOR points are the reason I feel that Steve shouldn't be making comments about whether and item is real or not. Like I said, he may know a lot more now than he did then. Education is a great thing. BUT, I think the past and him just out and out putting his personal vendettas on this public forum should exclude him from making ANY comments or remarks whatsoever.

Now please, let's get back to the task at hand. When I get back to my hotel room tomorrow, I'd like nothing more than to comment on this problem AND ONLY this problem.

Comment by Carl Ryan on February 7, 2013 at 10:13am: Well so far Shawn, all ive seen that you know is that you dont like Steve Cyrkin and that you either have a thing for Mike Aring or in fact are him. So who are you to question the knowledge of individuals you know nothing about. You just joined Saturday?? And yet Mike Aring supposedly went through his whole history of autographs for you detailing every run in he has had with members. Give me a break. Your comments that Steve knows nothing shows that you yourself have no clue about what you are talking about. You actually may want to try ANL, it seems like its a bit more your style.

Comment by shawn on February 7, 2013 at 11:04am: See, now Carl. In the interest of being completely frank. It's been approached to me that YOU are Steve Cyrkin with a fake name.
See how easy that it?
And yes, when nearly an entire evening is spent discussing one person, I guess he can tell me his whole history. But by you constantly trying to dig at me, when I said I was done with the subject, proves the above theory more than any points you've actually made. And I can see that quite a few people are of the opinion that some of you are just here to nitpick and pick fights. That's it. I mean,in this short paragraph, you haven't provided any knowledge, imparted any facts. Just flung accusations and proposed your own questions. I see it that is just YOU are the one that should join ANL. Apparently you are not interested in helping the topic at hand, but furthering Steve's vendetta. To be honest, I don't really see you as posting BEFORE Mike was banned at all (unless I'm missing something).
And yes, after knowing Mike for well over 10 years, I think I can safely say the things I have said and know they are legit. But you seem to have no agenda but to pick a fight. All you seem intent on doing is baiting me. Which I'm not really happy to bite, and I will not any longer? Is there some way to block the comments from the truly uninformed? Personally, I want to block Carl and Steve' comments. I've posted what I think I need to say and Carl is just Steve's lackey if he's not Steve himself. I wanted to help people, and there are apparently people who just want to sling bs and not be a part of intelligent conversation.
Anyone?

Back to the subject at hand.

Comment by Gary Harvey on February 7, 2013 at 11:52am: Shawn,

I thought I would answer one of your comments personally, I see this post is going off all over the place into subjects I know nothing about.

The question in hand is AFTAL and UK people being threatened and other underhand events etc as raised by Steve Cyrkin

I can confirm 100% that I was threatened by individual just 1 week ago.

I cannot go fully into the content of our conversation as this is now under investigation by the UK Police

But I can state this individual came to my home address late in the evening and raised numerous points regarding this site and some of my comments made about threads on here.

He also made allegations about other people who have raised comments and replies on AML too.

He stated his anger and frustration at the content being raised on here and was not happy

I listened to allegations and stories for 25 minutes and I ended the visit just after I was informed of potential violence against me if I continued raising posts and comments on this site

He wanted silence from me and in return, I would not encountern any violence

I was in shock, a individual would travel 2 hours or more to come visit me and warn me off at my home address !

This is NOT on !

Im not having it.

Would you ? ...................Would anyone ?

Im a family man and my son lives with me, my daughter visits regular and no way do I want anything happening at my home

For Christ sake man ......its a Autograph ! Its not life or death ! Or is it ?

I called the UK Police and made a statement that is being fully investigated along with other allegations that have been raised elsewhere in the UK by other people

I will inform the forum at the end of the investigation if I feel the information is worthwhile to all

Yes Shawn amazing isnt it ! A person is actually foolish enough to make threats , and highlight the problem more and now involve the Police and other Associations.

Maybe he was having a off day or was not thnking correctly but it did happen. I dont have to lie.

Im just dissapointed that the events that have happened over a bit of ink on some paper

People will protect their gains anyway they feel suitable

Money is the Root of ALL evil

Please remember we are not talking of a few hunderd dollars here

We are talking about tens of thousands of dollars

Profit/ Gain and Greed...... anything for the Almighty £ pound or $ dollar

Pretty sad really, as nothing is worth this

Ken Mills is happier but at what cost ?

There are lots of other people who are not happy

I sincerley hope someone can give us some good news regarding all of this soon and then we can move on

Thanks for reading this

Comment by Rich on February 7, 2013 at 12:20pm: I don't think that driving two hours to threaten you can be justified as an "off day." You're definitely giving that piece of trash too much credit.

Comment by Gary Harvey on February 7, 2013 at 2:04pm: Rich

What ever was his idea, I dont know

Its crazy to be honest, im not hard or a fighting person, I dont like violence either. I dont threaten anyone. I dont go out of my way to shaft anyone either

but DO NOT threaten me !

It was a simple choice really, I called 999 and let the Police sort it

Im not commenting on the old threads at this moment, as they were the ones raised in his outburst

But for this thread, I will comment

I sincerley hope this can be resolved, and people just start telling the truth

Its taking up far too much of my time ! lol

Comment by Rick Meyer on February 7, 2013 at 2:37pm: What about the McCartneys obtained from Adrian are we now to beleive any dealers that purchased them are to beleive they were handed into security also ! Anybody have any ideas? Or we just hoping the mention of the McCartneys supplied by Adrian(the choice for premium forgeries) just goes away?

What dealers sold or posses these Adrian obtained McCartneys?

Comment by Rich on February 7, 2013 at 4:08pm: I missed this bit earlier from Ken regarding his meeting with Adrian:

"On meeting he was most apologetic and had bought a significant amount of signed material which as was stipulated was guaranteed obtained by himself and not obtained through a third party to compensate me for the fact I had not been able to offer for sale all the Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney autographs which I had removed from my Website."

So, does this stock look significantly different than his other Jacksons? Sorry to say, but he fibbed once and now we're sure the new batch is legit?

Not to be mean spirited here, but I think his credibility has been pretty decidedly blown regardless of the circumstances. I would think that there's a significant stigma attached to any Jackson autograph that comes from Adrian, regardless of what he says or what they look like.