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The dark reality of the situation hit me while I was waiting for the second round of visiting hours to commence at the Santa Cruz County Jail I was there to visit Matthew Bowin, who I'd seen in the courtroom that morning appearing bookish and quiet, with a full but well-groomed beard and small, wire-rimmed glasses. With an undergraduate degree in political economy and natural resources from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MBA from Babson College in Babson Park, Mass., Bowin isn't what you'd expect from a convicted felon. Sure, he's in jail now awaiting trial on securities fraud charges, but what did that matter as I waited with dozens of others who clearly knew the prisoner-visitation drill better than I did?
I was nervous about remembering what I needed to ask Bowin, mainly because visitors aren't allowed to bring anything into the visiting room-not even a pen. In retrospect, this was fortuitous because it prompted Bowin to write me a letter detailing his argument to ensure that I didn't forget what he'd said.
What I was most interested in finding out from Bowin was how he came to be arrested and charged with more than 60 counts related to his company, Interactive Products & Services Inc., on April 8, 1998. Among the allegations: grand theft, false statements and offering to sell and buy unqualified securities. And what about the pimping and pandering charges pending against him in Santa Clara County? What was Bowin's side of the story on these allegations? What I learned is that he's a compelling storyteller-he seems to believe he's being set up-and that he's in over his head.
Through the Plexiglas barrier, Bowin began recounting his story: He started work, he said, on a version of his PC Remote-a device he says users can employ to type with their thumbs, making it easier to fit the essentials of a keyboard onto a handheld device-back at Babson College. According to Alan Johnson, chief of inspectors for the Santa Cruz district attorney's office, in late 1995 Bowin bought full-page (albeit poorly designed) color ads in magazines such as Worth, Discover and Computer Shopper to hawk his $99 PC Remote. Just a month or so after the ads began running,...