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Antiquities Caesars Palace, GFA/Stephen Rocchi and AAU/Drew Max Sued for Autograph Fraud

According to the Courthouse News Service, Mr. Daniel Odobas has filed a lawsuit against Antiquities Of Nevada (Toby Stoffa), Drew Max (Authentic Autographs Unlimited) and Stephen Rocchi (Guaranteed Forensic Authenticators for "Fraud, Deceptive, Trade, Misrepresentation, Unjust Enrichment, Conspiracy, Bad Faith, Breach Of Contract and Breach Of Warranty."

Immediately below are links to the story.

http://www.courthousenews.com/2016/08/30/vegas-memorabilia-house-ac...

http://www.inquisitr.com/3472565/vegas-antiques-and-memorabilia-dea...

In my opinion, this was a long time coming.

Drew Max of Authentic Autographs Unlimited, gives himself the title of Forensic Document Examiner (FDE).

What in the world does "Forensics" have anything to do with autographs?

Very, very rarely in my opinion.

I don't know of any Forensic Document Examiner who knows sports or music autographs

It is also important to know that COAs and LOAs issued by Forensic Document Examiners or by authentication companies that use them, are much less likely to be genuine.

I have yet to see an authentic autograph of Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio or Ted Williams with a COA from Drew Max (AAU).

Not one.

Just below is a link to a thread I wrote on Drew Max and one of his performances on the Pawn Stores show as he Forensically Examined an FDR "Letter To Clergy."

http://live.autographmagazine.com/profiles/blogs/drew-max-forensic-...

Then, of course, there is Stephen Rocchi and his Guaranteed Forensic Authenticators (GFA) group.

In the six years since Rocchi started GFA, I have yet to see one authentic Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams or Joe DiMaggio autograph with a COA from GFA (Guaranteed Forensic Authenticators).

Also, since when does a Forensic Examination only cost $25.00?

Rocchi does all of the below for $25.00 and still can't get it right.

From Rocchi's website. Seriously?

You do not need "Forensics" to determine if an autograph is authentic or not.

http://live.autographmagazine.com/forum/topics/ebay-mantle-dimaggio...

http://live.autographmagazine.com/forum/topics/joe-dimaggio-forgeri...

http://live.autographmagazine.com/forum/topics/roger-maris-forgerie...

Just below is a typical Mickey Mantle forgery on a baseball with a COA from Stephen Rocchi and Guaranteed Forensic Authenticators.

It can be opined in less than one second as a forgery.

What is Rocchi thinking when he issues a COA for the below Mantle forgery?

Rocchi (Guaranteed Forensic Authenticators) has certed dozens of the below set of Mickey Mantle/Roger Maris forgeries on a reproduced Safe At Home poster.

A real authenticator would laugh and dismiss this garbage in a millisecond, but Rocchi has certed dozens of these as authentic.

These are, at best, laughable.

When will all of this "Forensic" madness finally end?

Tags: aau, antiquities, caesars palace, drew max, forgeries, fraud, gfa, lawsuit, pawn stars, rocchi, More…toby stoffa

9 members like this

Comment by Rick Meyer on January 7, 2018 at 8:18am: Wow what an impressive feat. Should have got a medal for that.

Comment by sling on January 7, 2018 at 8:22am: i hope frank was well compensated. Of course I did not know what was going on and didn't mean to drag frank into this. Curiously, it was relatively easy to get my money back. I attribute that to the thought that they already decided to sue frank and did not want a dispute with me hanging over the frank lawsuit. +Otherwise i would out of luck like everyone else.

I was also not contacted by lawyers from either side. Could have helped Frank's lawyers cause a few weeks after the incident, the ARA woman who sold it to me called, had been fired, and told me some things (i don't believe she knew anything about things being fake).

But thanks to Steve Cyrkin (steve, you and I have been involved in 2 industry lawsuits now! hopefully no more) frank's lawyers came into court with an incredible arsenal of ammunition for the win!

Comment by sling on January 7, 2018 at 8:25am: And fyi, ARA was also doing alot of business on cruise liners

Comment by sling on January 7, 2018 at 8:33am: and I believe this was the case that really started the ball rolling on "forensic Examiners" being a fraud which many other companies were using to authenticate fakes

Comment by Rick Meyer on January 7, 2018 at 8:53am: I like hearing stories like this. Was a crtitical win in the hobby for sure. Maybe the biggest.

Comment by Richard S. Simon on January 7, 2018 at 10:13am: Apparently Wikipedia is not aware of Mr.Gladstone's shortcomings. Check him out on Wikipedia.

Comment by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on January 7, 2018 at 10:45am: Richard,

It appears that you are right. Wikipedia is completely missing the name American Royal Arts, and all the music and Hollywood memorabilia Jerry Gladstone sold from 2002 when he bought ARA back from Getty Images to 2010 when he put the company into bankruptcy.

Strange.

Comment by Barry S on January 8, 2018 at 8:05am: Funny how they could miss that.

Comment by sling on January 8, 2018 at 8:19am: i believe wikipedia is consumer contributed-no one has probably contributed o90r

ARA

Comment by Jason Charnick on January 8, 2018 at 10:07pm: Spent the weekend in Vegas for the NY Rangers/Golden Knights game, and my wife was kind enough to let me visit Antiquities (first time in Caesar's!) to get a look for myself. Plus there were plenty of stores to keep her busy too!

They were on me like white on rice, so it was tough, but managed to take a couple of pix of the worst offenders to my eyes. Also managed to speak to a couple of other browsers who were totally surprised that the stuff could be fake... we spoke as we stood in front of a framed looseleaf piece of paper with "handwritten" Purple Rain lyrics and signed by Prince, with a GFA sticker on it, and a price of $6995.

Also went to Field of Dreams a couple of doors down whose sports stuff was just about all legit to my eyes, but had a smattering of fakes on their entertainment/music items. Chatted with the clerk for a bit, and he acknowledged how Antiquities was chock full of fakes, how they were recently in the news, etc. I mentioned how their sports stuff was good (though insanely overpriced, moreso than Antiquities), and he called me one of the "smart ones," but didn't wanna get into it with him after I browsed the entertainment stuff after our convo. Didn't get any pix there tho.

Attached is what I was able to snap before I neither they nor I could take it anymore.