That was basically my main takeaway as well, how do you call yourselves an "authority" and let something like this slip past you multiple times over the course of years? Isn't part of being an authority having a comprehensive understanding of the production process and an ability to authenticate actual vintage pieces? Some of those early samples actually looked like they were sealed with a hot iron...ugh.
Not that they are to blame ultimately, culpability rests solely with TT, but they were essentially facilitating the fraud by failing to catch these for what they were. (There seems to be a growing evidence that there are some key details that differentiate these from legitimate Palitoy cards) They certainly did the collecting community a disservice by putting their official stamp of approval on these things. I don't see how they can really have any credibility after this.
Jesus, it is a boatload of dough we are talking about too. I really feel badly for those people who got shafted in this.