Posted By:
Aaron M.Wow, I can remember conversations I'd had with Doug Allen about four or five years ago warning him about some of his policies (allowing Mastro employees to bid on Mastro auctions, Mastro auctioining items it owned, Mastro auctioning items authenticated by the seller himself, etc.) which gve the appearance that shilling could be possible (among other misdeeds like conflict of interest), but even I was suprised when it was discovered during the FBI's investigation last year that Mastro was unable (or unwilling) to produce bidding records for previous auctions. That really gave the impression that Mastro was hiding something from the bidding process that makes shilling all the more likely to have occurred. The card doctoring issue has also been perculating for years as Mastro has made liberal use of this process prior to encapsulating and auctioning these cards.
I really got nowhere with Doug as good-natured as he was he was either too naieve, obtuse, or worse (depending on the outcome of these investiations) to agree with my concerns. Now, it doesn't look like he has a choice.
Edited to add:
Paul, check out this thread/article as well:
http://www.network54.com/Forum/153652/thread/1217948033/last-1217958308/Mastro+Being+Investigated+-+Article