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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 Richard Bristow on February 4, 2013 at 10:31am: I had not heard of Adrian until this started.

Comment by Robert McCluskey on February 4, 2013 at 10:33am: Ditto !

Comment by Garry King on February 4, 2013 at 11:23am: I would also confirm that Marc has offered no intereferenrce in the commitee process at all. In fact, and the others will confirm this, during our first meeting he actually told us on the phone that we (the commitee) had his full support for whatever we did.

There has also been suggestions that i am a director or similar of AFTAL, and have been involved in this from the very start. That is totally incorect and a simple search at Companies house will confirm that i am neither a shareholder or a director of AFTAL and never have been.

I have been both Chair and Vice Chair at different times, but that is purely for the everyday running of AFTAL and nothing to do with anything else.

The suggestion made by someone else that anything said by a committe member cannot be trusted is very unfair indeed. I helped put the commitee together, they were not entirly my choosing, but it was put together after speaking with others. Each memebr of the team is known by me and in one case has been known to me for over 20 years. To suggest that we were put together as a team of yes men is just plain stupid.

As regards the same of these things in the USA, i think you all need to look hard at your own shores, as by his own addmision, Adrian spent much of his time in your country, how do you think he supported himself for months on end?

It is a great shame that a small handfull of people some of which are even in the UK, seem determinded to destroy AFTAL. It has been good for dealers and consumers here in the UK, but i can only see a further proliferation of forgers on ebay.co.uk and elsewhere should it dissapear.

I have said this before, but the only people to gain from the destruction of AFTAL are the forgers.

Comment by Brandon Mysinger on February 4, 2013 at 3:09pm: Garry King is correct in saying that the people behind this are the forgers. So much so, that the suspected largest forger ( or forgery dealer ) actually controlled the entire AFTAL organization.

The question is, who knew that Dom Manning was still in charge? It would seem that Whomever the 1st steering committee member had to know that Manning was still running things. If that's not the case, then MAN people got played.

The thought that Manning was hiding behind the curtain, being a voice without a body like the Great and Powerful Wizard of Oz, is just hard to accept. Someone had to know. And whoever that was, obviously shared the agenda.

Garry also said that he wasn't a "stockholder". I wasn't aware that AFTAL sold shares of stock. If so, this issue will get muh deeper.

Several of us have taken heat on this from day one. Her because we dared to ask questions. The stink from this got worse as time went on.

Now, we have to "watch our shores". It was " our people" who flushed this Manning / Adrian / AFTAL out into the open. I guess we are doing something right at least.

Comment by Rich on February 4, 2013 at 3:48pm: Sounds like AFTAL has money in the bank, and now it's under Manning's control. Nice. Not enough that he sold how many thousands of dollars worth of forgeries, now he's basically running off with the rest of the organization's cash.

Meanwhile Markus and Jason have just wiped clean off the AFTAL website. I wonder who did that.

Comment by Rick Meyer on February 4, 2013 at 6:00pm: So Manning is the guy still operating the AFTAL website?

Comment by Rick Meyer on February 4, 2013 at 6:04pm: Robert, Ken and Jason sounds like you all were stuck in a "no win" sittuation. You all have my respect and my apologies for any reference otherwise.

I think you all are stand up guys and appreciate the efforts you all made on this. Wasn't easy I'm sure.

Comment by shawn on February 4, 2013 at 7:10pm: that's just sad!

Comment by Rich on February 4, 2013 at 7:12pm: Out of curiosity, does UACC have an official response or opinion on this? Not that I really care too much, given my opinion of the UACC.

Comment by Brandon Mysinger on February 4, 2013 at 7:14pm: Surely so since some of the dealers are / were members of both "clubs". They may stay out of it though.

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