Convicted Fraudster Rossi Accuses Licensee Industrial Heat of Fraud
“Smoke Screen” by mbowe-wallpapers
April 6, 2016 – By Steven B. Krivit –
Andrea Rossi, a convicted white-collar criminal with a string of failed energy ventures, is suing Thomas Darden, JT Vaughn, and their affiliated companies Cherokee Investment Partners LLC, Industrial Heat LLC, and IPH International B.V. for fraud. Rossi is accusing them of stealing his intellectual property.
Judging by all available facts known to New Energy Times, although Rossi and his Leonardo Corp. may have some patents and patent applications, there is no evidence that he has any working system that can produce commercially relevant amounts of excess heat based on what is contained in Rossi’s published intellectual property.
According to the complaint, Industrial Heat had paid Rossi $11 million for a license to what he calls his Energy Catalyzer, or E-Cat, an assembly of copper pipes that he says can produce 1 megawatt of commercially useful excess heat from low-energy nuclear reactions (LENRs). Attorney John Annesser, with the Silver Law Group in Islamorada, Florida, is representing Rossi. Annesser has been licensed for four years. Before that, he worked as a general contractor.
According to the license agreement, Industrial Heat was supposed to pay Rossi another $89 million after the successful completion and verification of a one-year operating test in February 2016. Some of the accusations in the complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, appear suspicious.
Rossi says that “Industrial Heat and/or IPH engaged and paid two of their representatives, Mr. Barry West and Mr. Fulvio Fabiani, to monitor, maintain, take part in, and report on the operation of the E-Cat unit being tested.”
New Energy Times does not know who West is, but Fabiani, whose expertise is in electronics and computer science, was Rossi’s right-hand man, according to journalist Mats Lewan, who writes for the Swedish technology newsweekly Ny Teknik. If Rossi’s claim is true, Industrial Heat paid Rossi’s closest technician and engineer to perform technical due diligence for Industrial Heat.
According to Rossi’s lawsuit, on or about March 29, 2016, Fabio Penon, whom Rossi called an expert responsible for validation of the test, “published his final report regarding the operation of the E-Cat.” As of today, New Energy Times is not aware of any evidence that such a report was ever published publicly. According to Rossi’s blog, Penon was paid half of his compensation by Industrial Heat and half by Rossi’s Leonardo Corp.
Penon has worked for Rossi and written at least one report about Rossi’s E-Cat since 2012. He identifies himself as “M.Eng. (Nuclear Engineering Specialist).”
Despite Rossi’s assertions in his lawsuit, no published evidence has ever described any truly independent testing of his E-Cat. Neither is there any evidence of any “major independent third-party certification institute,” as Lewan claimed.
[Note added April 7: Rossi claims in his lawsuit that the test for Industrial Heat was performed for an undisclosed customer, on the customer’s premises, and that the customer “agreed to pay Industrial Heat up to $1,000 per day for the energy produced by the E-Cat unit” during the test.”
The language allows for the possibility that the customer was also willing to pay as little as $0.]
Timeline of Recent Events and News Stories
Feb. 18, 2016
Technology journalist Mats Lewan publishes a blog entry about a successful one-year test of Rossi’s device. Lewan cites no data, cites no sources except Rossi, quotes no scientists who validate this claim, and fails to identify the independent third-party certification institute. Lewan writes that the test was “controlled by a major independent third-party certification institute” and that the test was “undertaken by Andrea Rossi and his U.S. industrial partner Industrial Heat.”
Feb. 26, 2016
New Energy Times publishes “Rossi Promoter Arrested on Child Sex-Abuse Charges.”
Feb. 29, 2016
New Energy Times reader Stephen Goodfellow tells Krivit about Mats Lewan’s Feb. 18, 2016, blog entry.
March 8, 2016
New Energy Times sends a news inquiry to Thomas Darden and asks questions to verify Mats Lewan’s Feb. 18, 2016, blog entry.
March 10, 2016
Industrial Heat issues a statement and apparently terminates its relationship with Andrea Rossi.
March 10, 2016
New Energy Times publishes “Industrial Heat’s E-Cat Exit.”
March 11, 2016
Rossi denies the termination of his relationship with Industrial Heat. “There is absolutely no divorce between Leonardo Corporation and any of its Licensees, including Industrial Heat. Industrial Heat is the legitimate licensee of Leonardo Corporation for its Territory, and I never referred to any possible divorce. I invite anybody to disregard any innuendo, supposition, speculation related to the licenses of Leonardo Corporation unless they are communicated directly from Leonardo Corporation. There is some imbecile that tries to get audience inventing situations that do not exist.”
March 29, 2016
New Energy Times publishes “Industrial Heat Goes Cold on Rossi.”
March 29, 2016
Rossi claims that the one-year test was successful and he demands the remaining payment of $89 million from Industrial Heat.
April 4, 2016
New Energy Times publishes Luca Gamberale’s report on Defkalion Green Technologies’ version of Andrea Rossi’s Energy Catalyzer. The report shows how Defkalion created an illusion of a LENR-based energy device. It reveals how Defkalion may have duplicated what Rossi was doing.
April 5, 2016
Rossi sues Industrial Heat and other parties for non-payment. He says that they “intentionally and willfully failed to disclose to Rossi and Leonardo their intention to misappropriate the E-Cat IP and deprive the Plaintiffs of the same without compensation” and that they “slavishly copied Rossi and Leonardo’s technology illegally claiming the E-Cat IP as its own.”
Timeline Excerpts From Rossi’s Activities With Defkalion
Feb. 7, 2011
Lewan quotes Symeon Tsalikoglou, spokesman for a new Greek company named Defkalion Green Technologies. “We represent a group with financial and industrial background having invested into Dr. Rossi’s technology and having obtained the exclusive rights to manufacture, license and distribute globally.”
June 10, 2011
Lewan writes, “The first known European manufacturer of the device, in Greece – Defkalion Green Technologies – where a pilot installation of one megawatt will be inaugurated in October 2011, according to Rossi.”
June 10, 2011
Lewan quotes Maddalena Pascucci, identified by Rossi as his wife. “The contract [with Defkalion] can be defined by two basic steps. The first is an experimental test. If the test goes well, there will be an initial down payment.”
July 6, 2011
Defkalion offers licenses for rights to manufacture “products based on Andrea Rossi’s e-Cat invention” for 40.5 million Euro per factory.
Aug. 1, 2011
The deadline for the first payment from Defkalion to Rossi passes.
Aug. 7, 2011
New Energy Times publishes “Rossi’s Scientific Failure in Seven Steps.”
Aug. 7, 2011
Rossi issues a backdated (Aug. 4) press release announcing termination of business with Defkalion.
Aug. 8, 2011
Rossi writes on his blog: “Reason of the split from Defkalion has been only and exclusively financial.”
Nov. 24, 2011
Rossi writes on his bog that he deceived Defkalion: “It was just a trap we made.”
2016
Defkalion has disappeared and seems to be defunct.
Timeline Excerpts From Rossi’s Activities With NASA
July 13, 2011
Rossi leaks the news of the forthcoming NASA meeting to one of his bloggers.
July 14, 2011
Rossi visits NASA Marshall Space Center to discuss his device. NASA propulsion engineer Michael Nelson organizes a meeting. At the end of the meeting, Rossi asks whether NASA would like to independently test and confirm his device. NASA agrees. NASA tells Rossi that he must bear the costs of test, estimated at $50,000. Rossi agrees. NASA begins to draft a formal agreement.
July 15, 2011
Rossi writes on his blog that he and NASA will work together. “I met extremely high level scientists. I have been really surprised and honored to discover that they have got independently thoroughly information about this technology. All I can say, so far, is that we will work together.”
July 15, 2011
Michael Nelson writes to New Energy Times: “Our impression of Rossi is that he is not acting like a man that doesn’t have something. Exactly what he has, we still are not sure. But he seems certain that he has something.”
July 22, 2011
Michael Nelson of NASA discusses details of the test protocol with Rossi. Rossi now informs Nelson that NASA or a third party must pay Rossi $15 million for the privilege of testing his device rather than Rossi paying for a test at NASA. NASA does not pay Rossi.
Sept. 6, 2011
Nelson, investor John Preston, and other people go to Italy to observe a test of Rossi’s device. The test fails to show convincing evidence to support Rossi’s heat claim. There is no outflow of steam or water. A witness asks whether the device has an internal reservoir. Rossi becomes enraged. Preston’s engineers leave. NASA affiliates offer to come back in a few days after Rossi fixes the flow. Rossi declines NASA’s offer, saying he is “too busy.” An eyewitness, a NASA affiliate, tells New Energy Times, “Rossi changed the game totally. From the test plan, the device, everything. There was nothing there that we had agreed on. He had a 30-liter reservoir in there, and he wouldn’t even let us see what was in the box or weigh the box.”
Timeline Excerpts From Rossi’s Activities With Robert King
June 5, 2011
Rossi tells Krivit he has sold a 1 megawatt Energy Catalyzer to a San Francisco “customer.”
~June 2011
Brian Ahern, who had earned his Ph.D. in materials science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology tells Krivit that the potential investor was Robert King. Ahern says he was slated to perform the due diligence testing for King, and that Ahern had acted as the liaison. Ahern explained to Krivit what happened: “Rossi agreed to perform a demonstration for King if he placed $1.5 million in escrow and released the funds to Rossi after a successful test. After King agreed to the terms, Rossi increased the price to $15 million. King walked away.”
Questions? Comments? Submit a Letter to the Editor.
April 13, 2016
To the Editor:
At every turn, Andrea Rossi makes it difficult for a test to be performed; changing his fee from $1.5 million to $15 million, doing a 180-degree turn with NASA from paying NASA to demanding that he pay him $15 million for them just to have the privilege to test his device! He either consciously or subconsciously doesn’t want a test out of his hands because he knows it will fail. Surely a normal person would be falling over himself to have NASA freely test his device. Notice that the sum is always so substantial as to be declined and yet again Rossi avoids showing or giving up data. What concerns me most is all this is drawing people down the Rossi line and steering people’s time, thought and money down a path with no fruit at the end. For me, Rossi has been given too many chances. Where is a print out of even one days’ operation? This is going to cause credibility damage to the field. It’s obvious that we are going to gain nothing from Rossi. I am just amazed how long he is managing to spin this out.
It is sad to have to share these thoughts, but this guy’s modus operandi before the E-Cat is a history of substantial-scale scams. He has lied about energy efficiency, selling thermocouples to the U.S. Army that were said to be able to generate 1kw. That was an out-and-out con; no self- delusion, and at every turn he avoided close inspection. There can be no other conclusion to draw other than this guy is wasting all our precious time. Industrial Heat has already parted with $11 million and has probably been close enough to the action to see maybe a small energy gain which is the best that Rossi can have, in my opinion, and I think that Rossi has been scrambling to make something work for a year and IH has stayed quietly hoping that they will see something workable for their substantial payment.
That being not the case, they have pulled out and are wanting to go their own way without paying yet more to Rossi now that they realize that they have as much chance as Rossi playing guessing in the dark, and that further association with Rossi is going to more damage than do them good.
Chris Blythe
Leeds, Yorks, U.K.
