Who the Heck is Tom McMurrain and Why Was He Pushing TVI Express?

A website called "Secrets2Business" have an article on TVI Express.

But who wrote it? A guy named Tom McMurrain, who wrote a book "From ExCon to ExCaliber".

Both websites linked are dead. So who the heck is Thomas E. McMurrain? Turns out, he really is an ex-Convict. What did he went to jail for? Running a Ponzi Scheme... just like TVI Express. Here's the report:

THOMAS E. MCMURRAIN, 37, formerly of Atlanta, Georgia, pleaded guilty today to four counts of a federal indictment on charges of mail fraud and wire fraud. ...
Between 1997 and the end of October 2000, MCMURRAIN obtained over $9,000,000 from 80 investors. In the end, the vast majority of the investors received only monthly interest payments which totaled $1,600,000 over 1997-2000. MCMURRAIN only paid back about $200,000 in principal. The remaining investors never received their principal back.
MCMURRAIN never disclosed to investors that his pay day loan operations were running at a loss. Nor did he disclose that he was using their monies to invest in any other non-pay day loan operations, including loans totaling $700,000 to other MCMURRAIN's companies, as well as uncollateralized loans to friends and acquaintances without collateral. Additionally, MCMURRAIN did not disclose to lenders that he spent and lost $600,000 of their monies on personal day trading and expended another $700,000 on personal life style purchases.

The United States Attorney's Office, Northern District of Georgia

cited from http://www.thepanamanews.com/pn/v_16/issue_10/economy_02.html 

Name matches, crime matches, even the self-reference to "Ex-Con" matches. And if you still doubt it, here's the indictment archived on someone else's website

Furthermore, when the scheme unraveled, he ran off the Panama, and had to be extradited. Here's his entry on FraudDigest

On October 12, 2005, Thomas E. McMurrain was sentenced in federal district court in Atlanta, Georgia, to 87 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $7,500,000. McMurrain was convicted of mail fraud and wire fraud related to a loan fraud scheme. McMURRAIN pleaded guilty to the charges on May 12, 2005. 

Assuming he started serving the sentence in 2005, and serve half of 87 months for good behavior and early release, half of 87 is still 43 months, or over 3 and a half years... That would make his release in... 2009 or so.

So he immediately joined TVI Express, a very obvious pyramid scheme 8-ball scam...

Guess a leopard really can't change its spots.