the head of many world wide organizations, (which he and some of his friends founded), and has a fairly large group of "Certified Instructors" around the world.
Here is where you get "legitimatization"

You have all your friends join and promote each other, then they get their friends in. After a while you have a huge organization through the world of "Soke's"

When someone says you are a fake you tell them you are recognized by the largest Soke organization in the world.

I wont mention any names, but on well known one has a standard of you must be a 6th in 3 styles then create your own to be considered a Soke.

Poof you are promoted to 10th.