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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 Steve Cyrkin, Admin on February 4, 2013 at 10:22pm: Brandon,

The reason most of us ignore you is because it's been clear since day one that your goal has been to destroy AFTAL in its entirety and the credibility of Garry King--not just help AFTAL get rid of its bad members. Just like you've been trying for the last year to destroy my credibility and Autograph Magazine Live.

You have been a real disappointment—a shining example of no good deed going unpunished. You had two anonymous eBay accounts in 2009 filled with nothing but entertainment forgeries, including quantities of Harrison Fords and Sean Connerys. When I found them and confronted you, at first you denied they were your accounts. When you eventually admitted they were yours, you said you were duped by your suppliers. I only knew you as a NASCAR authenticator and didn't know the truth about Global Authentics at the time, so I gave you the benefit of the doubt and let you stay on AML as long as you refunded everyone's money, which you said you did, and stuck to NASCAR, which you mostly did. It wasn't until much later that I found out you had been exposed on the Star Wars site RebelScum.com for selling forgeries. Mostly Fords, I believe.

So what's your goal here, Brandon? To destroy Garry King so Global Authentics can find a new market in the UK, since the truth about them is well known in the US?

Comment by Robert McCluskey on February 4, 2013 at 10:32pm: Carl - what would you like to know ? I am online for another 15-20 mins, will answer what I can.

Comment by Carl Ryan on February 4, 2013 at 10:43pm: And just so i clarify this. When i say being swept under the rug, im not referring to AFTALs board members or the steering committee, i am referring to AFTALs director, who will undoubtedly, heck he already is, trying to sweep this away

Comment by Carl Ryan on February 4, 2013 at 10:47pm: Well i take those questions back Robert. Im pretty sure you cant answer any of those. But can you answer whether the McCartneys were looked at when the board reviewed the evidence. And can you answer if Adrian stated for the record that he didnt sell any forgeries? Thanks for commenting and for being upfront and i understand if you cant answer

Comment by Carl Ryan on February 4, 2013 at 10:49pm: And i agree with you all the way Robert, i havent heard anything about MJs being offered by dealers here, and ive been actively trying to look for styles that i thought were Adrians. I think the major reason is probably people are not saying they have them or had them. And then their are probably the odds sales that are going on under the table. I have no reasons to believe that the forgeries arent affecting the US collectors.

Comment by Robert McCluskey on February 4, 2013 at 10:51pm: - can you reveal what the board found in their investigation of the items.

Not entirely, not at this moment, sorry :(

- Was Manning found to be connected?

Was Dominic the source of the items ? No. Did he supply them to several dealers ? Yes. I think that is common knowledge now and has been for a while. I think it is as certain as can be that Dominic did not forge anything.

- Were the McCartneys looked into at all?

No, not even glanced at.

Comment by Carl Ryan on February 4, 2013 at 10:55pm: thank you Robert. I deleted my previous questions b/c i didnt think you could answer them. But you did, and thank you.

Comment by Robert McCluskey on February 4, 2013 at 10:59pm: - And can you answer if Adrian stated for the record that he didnt sell any forgeries?

To be absolutely 100% honest, I can't actually remember and I don't have a copy of his statement to hand to check back. I would imagine the answer would be yes he did say that or we would have wrapped everything up in a few minutes ! The statement, however, was made before we became involved.

Adrian did confirm, as Ken mentioned in his earlier statement a couple of weeks ago, that he did obtain "a number" of signatures by passing them to members of MJ's security and collecting them (signed) later, so they were not signed in his prescence.

Comment by Robert McCluskey on February 4, 2013 at 11:07pm: I also think I am OK to say that none of us were happy with the term "in person" being used for any item that was not signed in view of the person selling it.

My personal view on anything that is obtained via a 3rd party, even if it is out of sight for just a couple of minutes, is that it is only one step away from being a TTM autograph and that it should be treated in the same way as a TTM autograph. Some of you will disagree, some of you will feel the same, but if I was buying an autograph sold as obtained in person I would expect the seller to have passed the pen to the person signing the item and watched him scribble his name in front of me.