Post by Ditch Fahrenheit on Mar 18, 2016 12:12:32 GMT -8
CGC LINK
So CGC has legally parted ways with Akoni..
If someone could give a brief summary I am curious what has happened with this. I have read the specific complaints here in the PL but I'm not familiar with the general picture. Has he walked away from clients and obligations? Are there extenuating circumstances?
For a couple of years, Akoni Kaholo (kaholo1256) was a witness/facilitator in good standing with CGC...particularly the Signature Series program.
Back in the middle of 2015, he advertised a sketch opportunity with Kevin Eastman. He took (a lot) of money and books to be signed and/or sketched on. This was normal as Akoni Kaholo had taken many submissions of this nature in the past and never had any problems.
While getting these done, Akoni Kaholo continued to accept submissions for other shows he'd be attending in order to get them signed for clients.
Many of the original books from the first Eastman sketch opportunity were completed and group photos were posted. Originally, he was to submit this directly to CGC via the mail. Then, he was to bring them to Baltimore Comic Con for on-site grading. Then, he was to bring them to NYCC for submission. None of these things happened. Akoni Kaholo went silent after that.
Many clients started posting in his threads asking for updates with no response. PM's went unread and phone calls were dodged.
I nominated Akoni Kaholo for the probation list back in December. This prompted a response from him where he basically said "my bad all, I'll get these right out and get things straightened out". He immediately went silent again.
When enough people asked questions, it surfaced that Akoni Kaholo had MANY outstanding bills waiting to be paid at CGC and from the looks of it, he had no intention of paying them. He had many already-graded books that needed payment before being shipped. Many more books were sitting in boxes at his house waiting to be submitted.
I've heard many figures thrown out, but it sounds like the total cost of all the bills, signing fees, and the value of the books he was responsible for that were outstanding was around the $100K mark.
Former friends of his who also work with CGC regularly stepped in and got many CGC invoices paid and the books returned to the owners. They funded some of this by taking possession of his personal books and selling them (on Facebook).
I believe the majority of books have been returned, but there are a few instances where Akoni Kaholo lied to get additional submissions. That's my situation. I and several others are currently waiting on refunds that may or may not come as a result of Akoni's lies where he purposefully solicited submissions that he had no intention of completing.
CGC has issued a letter to Akoni Kaholo saying he is no longer allowed to witness or facilitate for them. It's unclear to me whether or not he's allowed to submit to them anymore, but from the sounds of it, Akoni is looking to just brush his hands of the whole situation and leave it all behind.