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thusiasm for certificates of authenticity (COA) within the col- lectible community. How does someone know if a signature is authentic? That’s


hard to answer. Most sellers provide a COA but as eBay notes, “if you will fake an autograph you will fake a COA.” It urges con- sumers to deal only with sellers who offer “a lifetime uncondi- tional guarantee. If you are unhappy, simply return the item [in] the condition it was sold to you.” EBay also cited a statement by the Universal Autograph


Collector’s Club (UACC), which it called “one of the most, if not the most, respected autograph organizations in the world.” The UACC, which had long renounced the use of COAs, addressed its reasons on its website. “The UACC has been very vocal about the fact that [COAs] are


totally worthless. The UACC does not issue COAs and always encourages collectors to get a signed receipt for merchandise, instead of a COA. Frankly, they aren’t worth the paper they are printed on. A COA is only as good as the dealer that has issued it. If you buy from a UACC Registered Dealer and get a receipt, you are following the correct procedure.” Fake celebrity autographs are not a recent occurrence. In


2005, the FBI noted that “most industry experts concede that over half of the most sought-aſter athletes’ and celebrities’ auto- graphed memorabilia is forged. Industry experts estimate that the autographed memorabilia market in the United States is approximately US$1 billion per year. Cooperating subjects and memorabilia experts estimate forged memorabilia comprises over US$100 million of the market each year.” The problem was significant enough that, in the mid-1990s,


“the Chicago Division of the FBI initiated a sports memorabilia fraud investigation targeting a group of individuals who forged, fraudulently authenticated, and distributed Chicago athletes’ autographed memorabilia [including Michael Jordan’s]. The case resulted in the conviction of [14] individuals in five states involved with forging and distributing forged memorabilia.” While the FBI had some successes over the years with its


investigation, dubbed Operation Foul Ball and Operation Bullpen, obtaining convictions in these kinds of cases can prove to be difficult. In March 2014, a prominent autograph seller, Gotta Have It


Golf Inc., won a six-figure settlement against Tiger Woods. Back in 1997, Woods and several other famous golfers (including Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus) accused Gotta Have It of selling signed pictures of the golfers at the prestigious Masters golf tournament. The signatures were fake, the golfers said, and had several members of Gotta Have It arrested, handcuffed and removed from the golf course. The determination was based on a small sampling a private investigator had examined at a Gotta Have It location, which looked fake to him.


It took almost 20 years for the dust to settle, in favour of Gotta


Have It, in a case that had numerous twists and turns. Despite 45 minutes of testimony by Woods, in 2014 a jury “found Tiger Woods’ company, ETW, liable for deceptive and unfair trade practices in a civil case. Bruce Matthews, a South Miami resi- dent, and his company [Gotta Have It Golf Inc.] alleged that Woods breached a 2001 licensing agreement by not providing a specified number of autographs and photographs [a condi- tion that arose aſter a settlement in the 1997 case],” the Miami Herald reported. The jury awarded US$668,000 in damages to Matthews’ company, but interest will increase the total to about US$1.3 million, according to Eric Isicoff, one of Matthews’ attorneys. Woods’ company is expected to appeal. How is a person buying a signed picture, poster or trading


card supposed to navigate this incredibly tricky world of auto- graph fraud? There are rating companies, such as PSA, JSA and,


How is a person buying a signed picture or trading card supposed to navigate the tricky world of autograph fraud?


in Canada, KSA, that have an excellent reputation for authenti- cating memorabilia (for a fee). But even they can be fooled. PSA was involved in one of the greatest trading card scams


ever when, in 1991, it graded a 1909 Honus Wagner baseball card as PSA 8 Near Mint-Mint, the highest grading ever given to a Wagner card. Wayne Gretzky once owned the card, which was later bought by a businessman for US$2.8 million. The edges of the card, it was later discovered, had been trimmed by someone to make it look more valuable. Other than personally witnessing a celebrity signing a card or collectible, is there any way to know the signature is genuine? The odds aren’t great, especially as the Internet is rife with videos showing how to fake signatures. Perhaps what is needed are more Hamills, celebrities who


don’t want their fans defrauded. Thanks to social media, they can help combat fraud by becoming proactive in unmasking it. But just as there are few Luke Skywalkers in the galaxy, the chance of that happening is probably small. What Hamill did, however, was to become a force to be reckoned with.


DAVID MALAMED, CPA, CA•IFA, CPA (ILL.), CCF, CFE, CFI, is a partner in forensic accounting at Grant Thornton LLP in Toronto


MAY 2016 | CPA MAGAZINE | 51


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