Thompson Adviser Has Criminal Past

Wamp said the McKees employed a good portion of the Chattanooga area, and Ellsworth McKee has served as a sort of town father. As Ellsworth McKee's son-in-law, Huggins was an important early contact for Martin, Wamp said.

With Huggins's help, and access to more than $40 million in loans and investments from the McKees and others, court records show, Martin started a series of companies. He helped run Soil Restoration and Recycling LLC, and sought public funding to help clean up Chattanooga Creek.

The company joined with another Martin concern, M&M Partners, to develop a golf course and gated community to meet what they said was a growing demand for luxury housing in a town near Chattanooga, Ooltewah, according to news accounts. Martin also helped form Four Seasons Environmental, Ooltewah Properties and Aquaterra Engineering, according to public records.

The business ventures enabled Martin to accumulate personal wealth and allowed a company he controls, Martin International Resorts and Aviation LLC, to buy the jet used by Thompson.

But some of the business ventures gave rise to litigation. Martin took Tennessee businessman McKenzie to court in 2006 because of a disagreement over responsibility for the interest on a $127,500 loan. They settled the matter privately, according to Martin's attorney. Businessman Scott Hodges took Martin to court in 2005 over $220,000 in proceeds from a development deal the two had struck. That case also ended with an undisclosed out-of-court settlement, according to news reports and a source.

But the most intractable case -- one that remains unresolved -- was the one brought in 2003 by his early patron, Ellsworth McKee. McKee said in court that Martin and Huggins each borrowed $8 million from him and refused to repay it.

Martin's lawyer, John P. Konvalinka, has argued that the loan was forgiven. He said that to some, Martin's various disputes over money may seem significant, but in fact they are not. "For a man engaged in 1,000 transactions in a year, he doesn't have near the amount of litigation that some of my clients do."

Martin now lives in Alabama. He works in an office next to a private airstrip, where his small jet is based.

Research editor Alice Crites, staff writer Jonathan Weisman and database editor Sarah Cohen contributed to this report.