Global Authentication files for bankruptcy protection

Global Authentication, which offers card grading and autograph authentication services, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
The company’s petition, filed Dec. 16 with U.S. Bankruptcy Court’s Central District of California, lists estimated assets between $50,000-$100,000 and estimated liabilities of between $1 million and $10 million.

Ault Glazer Capital Partners, which had been supplying capital to Global for the previous two years, purchased 100-percent ownership of the grading company last year. It appointed Bill Dully, a former executive with Upper Deck and Donruss who was also serving as president and CEO of Ault Glazer, as the CEO of Global last September.

Among the entities listed on the company’s list of top 20 creditors are Global executives Steve Rocchi, Mike Baker and Steve Sipe, along with the Internal Revenue Service. The amounts owed to each creditor were not listed in the initial bankruptcy filing.

The bankruptcy filing for Global, which does not affect the grading company’s day-to-day operations, is one of several changes that have taken place at Ault Glazer in the past year. The latest came this week, when the company announced that Dully had left his position with Ault Glazer and was being replaced by Gary Gottlieb.

“Bill Dully left to pursue new ventures, and we all wish him very well. I’ve been brought in because I have the experience to restructure the company’s finances and move the company forward in profit-generating ventures,” said Gottlieb.