This time in Wyoming.

See A-Square’s Alphin accused of falsifying documents

quote:

A-Square’s Alphin accused of falsifying documents
By REBECCA RODENBORG
Reporter

A-Square president and founder Art Alphin was seen for an initial appearance on a felony charge of obtaining property by false pretenses in Douglas' circuit court this morning with his attorney, Ian Sandefer of Casper, at his side. Alphin was served court summons in January, but never arrested. No bond was set during the hearing, meaning Alphin will remain out on an OR (own recognizance) bond. He declined immediate comment to the Independent.
Alphin is being accused of falsifying a Department of Workforce Services document and receiving $1,500 in grant funding for an employee that no longer worked at the company in a document filed Feb. 7 in Eighth Judicial Circuit Court.
Alphin is being charged with obtaining property by false pretenses, a felony, following an alleged Dec. 17, 2007, incident, when he filled out a grant application for funds to train an employee who hadn’t worked for the company since September 2007, according to an affidavit filed by Wyoming Department of Criminal Investigation Special Agent Kenneth Glassen.
Alphin had been awarded $2,000 in grant funds for the employee, but only received $1,500 so far, Glassen wrote. Glassen began investigating Alphin Nov. 6, 2010, after being contacted by the Glenrock Police Department.

George
P.S. posted here since he made his "name" in the big bore arena.

Could not happen to a nicer fella, bless his heart.

Pull up a stump and grab ya a beer. It'll get more interesting.

I wonder if he will show up in court in dark glasses with a long white cane and seeing-eye dog,
working on a defense as to why he signed on that dotted line of a document that was not in Braille.

I don't know much about AA. About all I know is that one of my former wives dragged me kicking and screaming on some sort of "Cruise" many years ago! Cruise is just not my cup of tea. I had just received the AA book, load manual, whatever the name is. You know it's a pretty thick book. Let's see, cruise was 5 days, something like that, I read the entire book from cover to cover, every single word, I never missed anything. Hell, there was nothing else to do? So at that moment in time, AA was my hero--saved me from that awful cruise and I had something to do! Other than that, I don't know?



Michael

I'm sure it was just a clerical error

It's good to know that some things never change.

Art will be Art very interesting man who always thinks he is right very smart man but hard to get along with..

Too clever by half...

Even probation after a felony conviction will get him out of the fireams business for good.

Some people just don't understand that they are not above the law. By weight, he's two of them.

Rich

Why do so many rejoice when a great man falls?

You tell me.

Trust me Arts a great man dont get me wrong and we are two people who stick to our guns and dont compromise hence why we've gotten along but after the stroke he just was not the same..

quote:

Originally posted by Michael Robinson:
Why do so many rejoice when a great man falls?

You tell me.

perhaps we have different understandings of what "great" means ..

granted, he is intelligent ...

though "Great" in my opinion, applies equaly to great big ego .. great big attitude .. and i'll stop there...

Though there are people that feel michael vick is a great man... never mind thet whole dog fighting ring thing ... and he's be reembraced by some football fans

mike mcquire ... a "great" man.. till, as it turns out, he was cheating to be great ...

perhaps words like "an industry ground breaker" or such are more appropo than "a GREAT man" ...

Amazing. $2000 is a such a piddling amount to risk going to prison over, plus all the repercussions that are liable to come out of this for the company. Pretty damn stupid on his part, if it's true.

Michael,

The guy perpetrated fraud on a bunch of people by not delivering the rifles they paid for or producing substandard goods.

His name has been mud for more than a decade.

George

Jeff and George, I could be mistaken, but my understanding is that AA was driven out of business by a lengthy, expensive and ultimately fruitless prosecution on the part of the BATFE and federal prosecutors.

I confess that I never got all of the details, but from what I did learn about it, the case certainly seemed trumped up to me - almost as though it was some kind of vendetta.

AA's business operations were completely shut down, and he could not manufacture or deliver his products. This does not necessarily excuse the fact that many customers lost money, but to my way of thinking, it ought to mitigate the blame.

And AA's accomplishments in the realm of big bore shooting, including design and manufacture of both rifles and ammunition, as well as his field testing of both as an African hunter, are considerable. IMHO, he ought to get a fair bit of credit for his book alone - the best there is when it comes to handloading for big bores.

He also graduated from West Point and served his country honorably - his was a long and distinguished career, in the army, as I recall, and he left a Lt. Col.

I, for one, wish him only the best, and am sorry for his further troubles.

Michael,

I'm not rejoicing and this is not a sudden trip and fall. It's more like a slow, down-hill slide.

I would like to buy some brass from A-Square for future projects. What happens now? It hurts us all.

Wouldn't be a bit surprised if this doesn't get WAY bigger, someone has bought, we have heard, a controlling interest in A Square, it as an entity may go on. Art,on the other hand.......

like michael jackson .. do you think "creepy pedophile" or rockstar?

same guy

kinda think, what a shame, more to it than just that, is it worth it?

Tensions are getting high around here. He lost his house in Montana and his house in South Dakota. This is his last stand. Sharps Rifle Company http://sharpsriflecompany.com/ (no they don't make Sharps) is technically the owner but things are strained even there.

quote:

The guy perpetrated fraud on a bunch of people by not delivering the rifles they paid for or producing substandard goods.

His name has been mud for more than a decade

I had a buddy that got ripped a new one by AA. Lost a bunch of money. Never got anything back from AA but promises and when he would no longer accept promises he got a WHOLE LOT OF lip service.

quote:

Trust me Arts a great man dont get me wrong and we are two people who stick to our guns and dont compromise hence why we've gotten along but after the stroke he just was not the same ..

The bolded part explains at least some. Strokes can cause dementia.

In all fairness, if anyone got screwed in the 2002 to 2005 time frame, that wasn't Al. Two other guys had restarted the businees after Al's woes with ATF. Those guys WERE crooks of the first order and both are in jail now. Selling guns under the table to skip taxes and Al's royalty.

NFMike,
How id come to pass for NF, Hawk, & AA all to be be in Glenrock at one time or another?

This is gun town USA. About 20 years ago there was an AP national article about Glenrock and it was determined that we had more FFLs per capita than anywhere else in the US. Obviously that was before ATF got picky about who could get one and before they raised the price.

Some of the best people I have ever met lived in Wyoming and I tried to buy a ranch in the Green River area myself. But I have also been in Glenrock in Jan and Feb. No offense but no thanks

Hope the gun business stays good for you--

SSR

quote:

In all fairness, if anyone got screwed in the 2002 to 2005 time frame

My buddies issues started before the ATF crap and never got worked out. AA just kept his money.

Karma.

Did Art let his Karma run over his Dogma?

As an aside, the photo of Art in the URL listed shows him in dress uniform with all his medals.
There is NOT a CIB* there...
So much for the warrior/combat soldier part.


Rich


* Combat Infantryman's Badge. If you were a fighting man in the Army, you will have one. The rest are combat support.

ISS, when I first picked up a copy of his book I knew what to expect from the man. The cover says he has a degree in "weapons system engineering" from West Point, a school with no such degree. In fact, when he was there they offered no majors at all, so I knew he was lying before I even opened it.

quote:

Originally posted by Omnivorous_Bob:
ISS, when I first picked up a copy of his book I knew what to expect from the man. The cover says he has a degree in "weapons system engineering" from West Point, a school with no such degree. In fact, when he was there they offered no majors at all, so I knew he was lying before I even opened it.

Bob,
That was also my first clue of something fishy about AA.
Even though the book and the work it represents is monumental. Great.
But Alphin and Capstick both had good book(s), eh?
Both controversial,
and both had help getting the stories concocted.

Yep, the main reason I quit West Point,
besides the fact that Nixon announced that the USA was quitting Viet Nam,
was because there were no majors for undergrads, everybody just got a "Bachelor of Science from West Point."
They expected you to get your desired major via graduate school elsewhere for a master's degree, thus incurring more years of active duty service ...
If you did not get fragged as a second louie.

I majored in chemical engineering, as an undergrad elsewhere, and know something of engineering education programs.
I have never heard of a degree in "weapons systems engineering" anywhere.

Karma.

quote:

I have never heard of a degree in "weapons systems engineering" anywhere.

Nor me but SIT does have an MSME with emphasis on munitions design. Course ya gotta go to Jersey for that ...

This thread reminds me of a very serious situation that came to sudden exposure in the Canadian Armed Forces in mid 2010... some of you may be aware of it:

One of Canada's top military brass, a Major Williams, who was in charge of the Trenton Air Force Base at the time, was charged with the rape and murder of several women. He apparently did this in his "off" hours. When most of the details of his activities came out in court, including the photographing of himself in the underwear of young girls into whose homes he quietly entered during the night, anyone who watched edited portions of the trial on TV, or read about it, or listened on radio, were caught between the conflicting emotions of stark horror and unbelief. Except it was all true, and then some!

Even our oldest grandson, who worked under him at the Trenton base, was completely shocked! Those closest to him in the military couldn't believe this was happening, or had happened. He was expected to become Canada's top military official. He'd even flown some of our Prime Ministers to various capitals around the world!

Today, he's locked up somewhere in Canada, and will not smell fresh air for a very long time. Me? I'm for capital punishment in such cases... but who am I?

This isn't intended to jump to judgment on AA, I'm content to let the court decide... but just to advance this proposition as stated in Scripture a very long time ago:

"The heart is more deceitful than all else, and is desperately sick; Who can understand it?

"I, the LORD, search the heart,
I test the mind,
Even to give to each man according to his ways,
According to the results of his deeds" -- The prophet Jeremiah.

... and to not forget this observation: "There go I but for the grace of God."

Bob

www.bigbores.ca

458, I apologize for being totally off topic, but that case you mentioned is truely horrific. What broke my heart was the one woman who, after meeting all of this sick bastard's demands on film, knew she was dead anyway and begged not for her life, but just that he one day tell her mother that she loved her. I support capital punishment but I'm still at a loss to concieve anything that would be appropriate here. May they RIP.

C'mon..let's wait for the fat lady to sing

Heyyyyyyyyy Duane!!

Is that a "Gotcha!" or what?

Wayne, bad boy!

Rich

quote:

Originally posted by Idaho Sharpshooter:
Heyyyyyyyyy Duane!!

Is that a "Gotcha!" or what?

Wayne, bad boy!

Rich

NFMike - it sounds like you got your information from Art, I know who was running A2 in 02-05 and I can assure you they are not in jail. I don't even believe they sold any (or many) guns during that period. I don't have a dog in this fight, just trying to keep the record straight.

"Red Leg"? Does this mean we have an ex-cannon cocker in the group now?

Rich
Sua Sponte