Founder of biotechs gets probation

Robert Nowinski, a scientist who made millions during the 1980s as the founder of several local biotech companies, was sentenced Tuesday to five years' probation for failing to pay $165,000 in child support.

Nowinski, who made more than $10 million as a founder and shareholder of Genetic Systems, was given an agreed-upon probationary sentence that could be lifted if he meets his financial obligations.

During a sentencing hearing in U.S. District Court in Seattle, U.S Magistrate Judge Monica J. Benton said a prison sentence would not help Nowinski catch up on the $165,000 he owes in back child support.

"I never expected to be sentencing an individual who has had the financial success you have had in a case like this," Benton said. "Perhaps this is an object lesson for the many people who think things can't go wrong."

A former researcher at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Nowinski, 60, was hailed as a star of the new biotech industry when he joined with New Jersey entrepreneurs in 1982 to form Genetic Systems. Nowinski's stock was worth $10 million when the company, which purported to be working on cancer-fighting monoclonal antibodies, was sold to Bristol-Myers for $294 million in 1985.

In the following years, Nowinski was among the founders of Icos, PathoGenesis and VaxGen, companies that were marketed as biotechs in search of either a vaccine for AIDS or a competitor of Viagra. Icos developed Cialis for treatment of erectile dysfunction. PathoGenesis successfully developed a cystic-fibrosis drug in the 1990s. VaxGen produced a vaccine for HIV that was later determined by researchers to be ineffective.

According to court documents, Nowinski married a 24-year-old woman in 1988. Court documents say that Nowinski signed a pre-nuptial agreement that entitled his wife to 70 percent of their community earnings in the event of a divorce.

When the marriage broke up in 1996, Nowinski agreed to pay his ex-wife, Connie Marciano, $9,200 a month in alimony for two years and $5,300 in monthly child support. Marciano was also awarded $2.25 million, a Jaguar vehicle and other valuables and property.

Nowinski later was ordered to pay additional money to Marciano, who has custody of the couple's three children, after she sued, claiming he had hidden assets from her.

In 2005, federal prosecutors charged Nowinski with willful failure to pay child support, claiming that he owed his ex-wife more than $125,000.

According to a pre-sentence report by public defender Carol Koller, Nowinski paid his child support on time and in full through his declaration of bankruptcy in 2002 and up until 2003, when he was beset by mental-health problems. That undiagnosed mental illness led to erratic behavior and poor decisions and eventually culminated in a suicide attempt in 2004, Koller said.

At the sentencing hearing Tuesday, Nowinski's attorney said that he was looking for a job in academia or as a consultant and that he was hoping to build a relationship with the children he rarely gets to see.

This story includes information from a previous report in The Seattle Times. Christine Clarridge: 206-464-8983 or cclarridge@seattletimes.com.