One of biotech's early superstars accused of being a "deadbeat dad"

At one time, he was a high-flying CEO whose companies promised help for cancer patients. He had a Picasso hanging in his Edmonds home and owned one of Seattle's swankiest art galleries.

The day before Thanksgiving, Robert Nowinski was arrested on federal charges of failing to pay child support. Once among the most important players in the Seattle biotech world, Nowinski has allegedly become, in the parlance of child-welfare workers, a "deadbeat dad."

Federal prosecutors say he fell nearly $125,000 behind on his child-support payments, and have charged him in a two-count criminal complaint.

Nowinski says he's broke.

If Nowinski's fall appears abrupt, his rise to the top was just as dramatic.

It was clear from his arrival in Seattle in 1975, as a brash young scientist at the Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center, that he had a rare combination of skills: the mind of a scientist but the instincts of a businessman.

"He was able to articulate the dream and get people to put money into it," said Bruce Montgomery, CEO of Corus Pharma, who used to work at one of Nowinski's companies.

After just a few years, he helped found a new biotech company, a field that was in its infancy.

In all, he founded four publicly traded biotech companies over the course of about a decade: Genetic Systems, which worked to develop antibodies for use in cancer treatment, Icos, PathoGenesis and VaxGen. He also helped found another biotech company, Primal.

Bill Gates put millions into Nowinski's dream, as did Paul Allen. Even outside investors, who at that time shunned the unproven field of biotech, were won over by Nowinski's vision.

"If you took the 15 largest biotechnology companies of the 1980s, we founded three of them," he bragged to a Seattle Times reporter in 1990.

In each case, however, he got out rather quickly — often winding up with millions. Genetic Systems, for example, was bought by Bristol-Myers Squibb, making Nowinski's stock options worth $10 million.

Nowinski's knack for coming out on top earned him the nickname "No-lose-ski."

In the mid-1990s, Nowinski dove into the art world, renting a 5,000-square-foot space in Pioneer Square, doing an elegant remodel and installing a high-tech interactive "virtual gallery" so clients could project big-screen images of available artworks.

The opening show at Meyerson & Nowinski was called "Picasso and Friends." His partner was Ronnie Meyerson, a New York art dealer.

Nowinski spoke enthusiastically to reporters about his plans to bring the work of internationally acclaimed artists to Seattle and his expectations for becoming a nationally recognized gallery. Less than three years later, the gallery closed, leaving many Seattle-area artists without representation.

Around the time of his art adventure, Nowinski's marriage was dissolving. In 1996, Connie Nowinski filed for divorce. The pair had a prenuptial agreement in which Connie was to get 70 percent of communal property and Robert was to get all of the property he brought into the marriage, court documents say.

Under the terms of the settlement, Robert was to pay Connie $9,200 per month for two years. He also agreed to give her $2.25 million broken into several lump-sum payments. Meanwhile, Robert kept various investments; stock accounts in his name; their fine-art collection, which included a Picasso worth nearly $1 million; and other items.

Within four years, Connie filed suit, claiming he had hidden certain assets from her during the divorce. A judge determined he owed her 180,000 shares of VaxGen stock.

In 2003, Nowinski was hit with another lawsuit. This one claimed he had raided a trust fund he had set up for his three children, ages 15, 14 and 11. He admitted in a deposition to "borrowing" from the fund, which contained $500,000 worth of biotech stock, and selling it, court documents state.

"At no time since taking this 'loan' have the funds ever been repaid, although Mr. Nowinski testified that he has been in possession of funds in excess of several million dollars in the intervening period," a guardian appointed to safeguard the children's financial interests wrote in a report to the court.

A judgment of $1.2 million was entered against him in connection with the trust-fund case. He told the guardian that before the divorce, he had "$20 million" and "now I have nothing."

Nowinski, who is on pretrial release, couldn't be reached to comment for this story. His defense lawyer in New York declined to comment.

About the time of Connie Nowinski's lawsuit, Robert Nowinski left Washington abruptly without telling the family, essentially disappearing for several months, the guardian's report said. It turned out he had moved to New York and subsequently filed for bankruptcy. As part of the bankruptcy, his fine-art collection — which included works by Picasso and Matisse, among other noted artists — was liquidated.

This fall, Nowinski told The Seattle Times he had been trying to broker a billion-dollar deal with a local biotech company on behalf of some major investors. He said he had designs on taking over the company as well.

The old Nowinski, the media-savvy deal-maker, appeared to be back.

But in October, he was accused of failing to make his $5,300-a-month child-support payments. According to the charging documents, Nowinski stopped paying in 2003, about the time his ex-wife remarried.

By August 2005, he was nearly $125,000 in arrears. And yet "From (Connie Nowinski's) observations, he never seems to have a lack of money," the investigating agent, Michael Nichols, wrote.

Jeff Sullivan, chief of the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney's Office, said federal prosecutors here file only about a half-dozen child-support cases a year, and then only when there's a good chance of collecting.

He noted that while Nowinski could face jail time if convicted, their foremost concern is getting the delinquent child support.

Seattle Times staff reporters Christopher Schwarzen and Ben Romano and news researcher Miyoko Wolf contributed to this report.

Maureen O'Hagan: 206-464-2562 or mohagan@seattletimes.com