Mr. Svigals called me out of the blue about FaceCash a few months ago. He introduced himself as the father of the plastic payment card, which he developed at IB

Mr. Svigals called me out of the blue about FaceCash a few months ago. He introduced himself as the father of the plastic payment card, which he developed at IBM. It sounded to me like he wanted a seat on our Board of Directors. This seemed strange because he hadn't even signed up for the product, but I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and at least meet with him. After meeting Mr. Svigals, who was quite dismissive of everything we were doing, I did some more research into his claims. He may have authored 25 books (Amazon.com lists 17 of them), but none of them are available for purchase in stores, and many are no longer in print. The vast majority are more like updated pamphlets than books, and they are mostly about smart cards. See http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=sr_nr_seeall_2?rh=k%3ASvigals%2Ci%3Astripbooks&keywords=Svigals&ie=UTF8&qid=1304700061 http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=sr_nr_seeall_2?rh=k%3ASv..., which have not become prevalent in the U.S. despite his predictions (which seem to go back years). Mr. Svigals also did not single-handedly invent the plastic payment card, though I'm sure he played a supportive role at IBM. He has edited the Wikipedia entry on the subject to insert himself into the card's history, but it's very hard to tell if his description is accurate without independent verification from someone else at IBM at the time. As best I can tell he worked in the Asia Pacific division but was not on the core team developing the technology. I wish him well, but would warn people that he has a tendency to inflate his claims, which shouldn't be necessary given all that he knows anyhow.