economy

"One-Ology will never have an end. This is the beginning of a collaboration on a philosophy that will help “individuals” better understand the flow-ness of building wealth on the Internet.... It is certainly rooted in Zen, it certainly is not limited to Zen."

Tom McMurrain never was prosecuted for the series of real estate and commodities frauds that he ran in Panama. He was never prosecuted for the extortion attempt that he made against this reporter. In the end, he was extradited to the United States to stand trial for a prior investment swindle, a pyramid scheme to get people to put their money into the loan shark business.

Here in Panama his victims were foreigners, so Panamanian authorities treated it as a laughing matter. Not only that --- he had the mayor of Bocas at the time, Eladio Robinson, on his side. (Robinson himself went to prison, for an unrelated real estate swindle.) His business was plugged by and his virtues were extolled by one Arturo Vallarino, then the second vice president of Panama.

(Do you wonder why The Panama News makes certain presumptions about the character of Panama City Mayor Bosco Vallarino, who proclaims the example of his uncle Arturo Vallarino as his inspiration to go into politics? In light of such declarations, on first blush it would seem that we are dealing with a protege who's dumber than a stone, thoroughly corrupt or both. Nothing that the mayor has done so far has refuted these notions. But that's another story.)

It seems that Mr. McMurrain is picking up where he left off in the wake of his September 2004 bust. On a LinkedIn web page that was taken down shortly after this reporter pointed it out to the US Department of Justice, the man lists his credentials:

Although he's not scheduled for release from the federal prison system until next month, the Dalitomma says that he has two jobs. He's helping used car sellers grow their businesses, and with another company he's a "strategic business advisor." Surely somewhere in the Dalitomma's Nirvana, the consciousness that was Charles Ponzi is giggling.

San Cristobal Land Development? That's the Bocas scam described at length via the articles linked to above.

Emergency One Holding Corporation? That's the Atlanta loan shark investment swindle for which McMurrain was sent to prison.

McMurrain is, so it seems, in a "halfway house," a private residential facility for federal inmates approaching their release dates. People in those places can come and go, not as they please, but in ways that would give them Internet access that inmates in a federal correctional facility do not have.

Prisoners' relationships with the Internet add up to a web of controversy, about which The Panama News has tacitly taken a stand by from time to time publishing online writings by Pennsylvania Death Row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal. If Tom McMurrain has found or founded a new religion, we would not begrudge him the right to propagate it on the Internet, even before release from prison. Allowing prisoners the right to express themselves is one of society's defenses against totalitarianism, and sometimes even the most despicable human beings have noteworthy things to say.

However, McMurrain is drumming up business based on, as he said in his now erased --- but preserved in our archives and probably elsewhere --- LinkedIn page, his "superior methodology and understanding," which he at least partly attributes to his exploits with San Cristobal Land Development and Emergency One Holding Corporation. His failure to disclose the nature of those businesses makes his online pitch fraudulent.

So, does Tom McMurrain join the substantial rogue's gallery of people who have run fraudulent schemes from federal prisons or halfway houses, or while under federal post-release supervision? Perhaps. There's no word yet on whether he's found somebody to part with his or her money based upon his misleading online representations.

And will McMurrain be back here? Usually, federal inmates are subject to travel restrictions for a number of years after they are released. Usually, Panama doesn't allow criminals who have been extradited from here to come back. But in addition to "yoga/meditation," McMurrain lists on his now erased LinkedIn page an interest in "international living." And if the guru gets on his astral plane and heads for these latitudes, Martinelli's new aeronaval defenses may not have the capability or inclination to shoot it down.

The Market is sublime only for a Trader who is truly alive and aware. To be truly alive is to know that you are one with the Flow of the Market and that you sit atop its flow. You are the Market and the Market is you. To know the Market is to embrace the awareness of equanimity, to realize that there is no such thing as good trades and bad trades, but all are Good trades, as each and every trade is your Teacher.