Can someone who's read through all that give me the cliff's notes version? How was he caught, what is the evidence, has he said anything yet?
So this guy makes an offhand comment in the SWFUK forum about how back in the day a huge stash of unused vintage Palitoy cardbacks and bubbles were acquired by a well known dealer called "Toy Toni", somewhere in the neighborhood of 25,000. (Supposedly TT also indicated to this guy at some point he had found a way to heat seal the bubbles onto cards like at the factory.)
People get curious and start asking more questions, it turns out a few other people recollect hearing this story as well, yet find it curious that none of these unused cardbacks ever turned up in any kind of quantity. TT comes one and denies any kind of wrongdoing, and claims to barely even know the person who supposedly sold them to him. (Who it turns out is now dead)
Then it comes out TT actually DID know this guy a lot better than he was letting on, had apparently started an internet business with him, etc. so doubt starts to creep in. This is further cemented when it is revealed that TT has a secondary ebay account he has been using over the years to buy up minty loose and U-graded figures.
At this point the eBay account is hidden from view, and it also comes out he has changed the name on this account over 30 times over the years. People start doing close examinations on carded figures they have brought from this guy and start noticing inconsistencies : blurs, smudges, triangular indentations in bubbles, and printing errors that seem unlikely to have been approved for production. Several of these same flaws are noted on other unused cardback samples from that era.
So this all leads people to conclude that this guy has worked out some method to reseal the vintage bubbles to the vintage cards, using actual vintage figures and then made a small fortune selling them as minty "warehouse finds" over the years. Many of these pieces have been AFA graded as 85-90's.
The original source has since produced a list of many of those unused cardbacks supposedly part of the original deal and they seem to match up with TT's sales history, etc etc. At least one person has confirmed selling loose figures to the suspect ebay account that again match figures which were later sold carded.
There has been some intermittent communication from the accused, an initial denial, but subsequent emails have been brief and somewhat evasive, certainly not what you would characterize as a vigorous self defense.
Whew, I think that is the highlights in a nutshell. It's a lot of people affected and a lot of money and potentially untold damage to the hobby in general. Stuff like that makes me sick, pure human greed.