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Yes, we’re serious. We’re even refraining from profanity in the title and opening for the sake of SEO this time, that’s how fudging serious we are.
As you might have heard, Craig Petty is being sued in a frivolous manner by the vampiric snake Yigal Mesika to try and shut Craig up after his absolutely outstanding exposé that Yigal unsuccessfully removed for a short while.
The long and short of it is that Yigal has been allegedly stealing IP for ages, and definitely bullying others for supposedly doing it to him. (They allegedly didn’t.) Craig allegedly proved this with incredible research.
Steve Sheraton has an excellent article on the subject if you want to know more (that we’ve copied the text of down for you at the end of this post), but we thought we’d cover three less obvious questions you might have. Starting with…
Don’t you hate Craig?
As a bit, dummy. Content creation is admirable, and investigative journalism is too. We have a shizload of disagreements with him and think his products are mostly untested junk but that doesn’t mean we really think he should be fed to wolves.
Why is he using GiveSendGo? Isn’t that the platform for alleged literal terrorists?
Technically, allegedly yes, but that’s only because it’s also the free speech platform. As a result, it’s the smartest choice here; especially with Craig being a Christian who doesn’t talk politics. Loads of easily grifted non-terrorist people will pour in with money assuming he’s a victim of Woke™. Little do they know Mesika is allegedly one of their favorite ethnicities, the fools!
It’s allegedly a damn good plan and this woke nut supports it.
What are your feelings on Murphy’s, which partners with both magicians involved?
As we’ve made plenty clear in the past, we hate those allegedly thieving fuckers. If at all possible, if there is any alternative, we will allegedly never recommend a Murphy’s product.
Our Plans From Here
We’re allegedly deciding how much of the discretionary budget we can afford to donate, once we confirm that truly no money would go to GiveSendGo in the event of a donation. Don’t expect any expensive reviews any time soon.
Oh right…
Well, there’s one expensive review allegedly testing two infamously similar products in progress right now, but thankfully we’ve secured a sponsorship for it from one of the companies involved.
And let me tell you, it allegedly ain’t the one that is Murphy’s. Profuse thanks must go to that as-yet-unnamed company opposing Murphy’s.
Editor’s note on his own piece: Bolded words above were allegedly recommended by legal. Not every instance mind you, but the word alone at some place in the piece. We allegedly opted to toss it in everywhere it was barely applicable as well for our own reasons that totally have nothing to do with semantic satiation.
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The full text of Steve Sheraton’s great article with links but without embeds, shared with his gracious permission, is found below. We do not directly or explicitly endorse these words that lack great volumes of “allegedly”s, but we wish to share them.
THEY STOLE THE INVENTION. NOW THEY’RE SUING THE JOURNALIST.
Explainers Feb 14, 2026
Yigal Mesika files defamation suit against Craig Petty — a UK citizen — in California for exposing 20 years of IP theft in magic.
If you’ve been following the Yigal Mesika saga, buckle up. If you haven’t, this is the perfect place to start.
Craig Petty — a respected UK magician, Inner Magic Circle member, and creator of dozens of original effects — just got served with a defamation lawsuit in a California court. His crime? Producing a meticulously researched documentary that exposed Yigal Mesika’s two-decade pattern of stealing inventions from fellow magicians.
Let me walk you through how we got here.
The Theft
In 2001, I invented Rinkey Dinky: a car key with a hidden precision reel for ring flight effects. It was a feat of miniaturization — Swiss engineering, Asian manufacturing, two years of development at a time when we were still communicating by fax. The prop became a staple for working magicians worldwide.
In 2024, Yigal Mesika released an exact copy. When confronted, Murphy’s Magic — the industry’s dominant worldwide distributor — claimed the two products had “nothing in common.”
The Absurdity
In 2025, Murphy’s removed Mark Bennett’s innovative AirTag-based ring flight from their catalog, claiming it was “too similar to Mesika’s car key.”
Read that again. According to Murphy’s logic, an AirTag resembles a car key more than my original car key does.
This Kafkaesque reasoning exposed the real agenda: protect Mesika’s stolen products at any cost, even if it means contradicting their own previous statements. The full documentation of this scandal reveals how deep this corruption runs.
The Documentary
Craig Petty spent months investigating. His documentary, The Desolation of Yigal Mesika, featured dozens of victims — myself included — telling identical stories. The pattern never changes: Mesika steals the invention, claims ownership through dubious patents, threatens the original creator, then weaponizes the legal system to silence anyone who speaks up.
The documentary exploded — 15,000 views and 300 comments in just days. Magicians worldwide were finally speaking truth to power.
So Mesika’s lawyers had it pulled from YouTube using copyright claims. The irony of a documented IP thief using copyright law to silence his accusers was not lost on anyone.
The video was eventually reinstated, but the damage — a week of lost momentum at a critical time — was done. The magic community responded by preserving the documentary on decentralized platforms where no lawyer’s letter can touch it.
Craig then gave a widely listened interview on the Penguin Magic Podcast, making the story accessible to an even broader audience.
The Lawsuit
And now, the latest escalation: Mesika has filed a defamation suit in California — not just against Penguin Magic, but against Craig Petty personally.
Craig Petty. A UK citizen. Being sued in California. For reporting documented facts about a pattern of IP theft that spans two decades and dozens of victims.
This is textbook SLAPP — Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation. It’s not designed to win in court. It’s designed to win by exhaustion. To drain Craig financially and emotionally until he — and anyone else watching — thinks twice before speaking up again.
It is the exact same playbook Mesika uses against the inventors he steals from: threaten, intimidate, exhaust, silence. Only now he’s turned it on a journalist.
Your Money Funds This
Here’s the uncomfortable truth that every magician needs to sit with: every Mesika product you buy finances this behavior. Murphy’s Magic is Mesika’s exclusive worldwide distributor. Your purchase becomes their legal war chest. Every retailer that carries his products — knowingly or not — facilitates the cycle.
If you’re disgusted watching criminals and abusers protect each other in politics, you’re looking at the exact same dynamic inside our art form. The difference? Here, you have direct control. Magic is an international community small enough that every purchase is a vote. Make yours count.
How You Can Help
I’ll be honest: I fundamentally oppose pouring money into the same corrupt US legal system that Mesika weaponizes against creators. But right now, contributing to Craig’s legal defense is the only way to keep him in this fight. So please donate while we take matters into our own hands and boycott the criminals who made it necessary.
Craig Petty’s Legal Defense Fund →
Every dollar keeps Craig in the fight. Every boycott makes sure there won’t need to be a next one.
The Bigger Picture
Twenty years ago, Mesika could steal with impunity. Victims stayed silent, fearing blacklisting from Murphy’s distribution network. Evidence lived on single servers, vulnerable to legal threats and takedown notices.
Not anymore. The documentary lives on decentralized platforms. The stories have been told. The evidence is preserved where no lawyer can reach it. And the magic community has shown — loudly and clearly — that it will no longer tolerate this.
Craig Petty did what journalists do: he investigated, documented, and reported for more info. For that, he’s being dragged into a foreign court by the very person his reporting exposed. If that doesn’t tell you everything you need to know about Yigal Mesika, nothing will.
Support Craig. Boycott Mesika. Boycott Murphy’s. And never stop speaking the truth.
Steve Sheraton is a Swiss-born inventor, Magic Castle performer, artist, and engineer known for TIME’s app of the year iBeer (120 Million downloads). His inventions have been featured on CNN, Ellen, and Sesame Street. He currently crafts apps for professional entertainers on magic.pm. For two decades he has fought IP theft at every level — from Fortune 500 boardrooms to the magic industry.
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