Good post from EcatWorld, pulling some items from behind a paywall:
Engineer48 <https://disqus.com/by/engineer48/> • 20 hours ago <http://e-catworld.com/2017/06/29/ross-v-ih-trial-begins-on-june-28th/#comment-3396267957> [hush][hide comment] Some details of the initial shots fired by IH & Rossi: https://www.law360.com/tria... <https://disq.us/url?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.law360.com%2Ftrials%2Farticles%2F940242%2Finventor-tells-fla-jury-he-s-owed-89m-in-licensing-dispute%3AyIqOA9liZ578K5esNarhI7v6TCk&cuid=2168707> Law360, Miami (June 30, 2017, 9:57 PM EDT) -- An Italian inventor suing over an $89 million licensing agreement for an energy catalyzer patent opened trial Friday in Miami, telling jurors that the licensees had repeatedly touted the technology and said it had "potential to change the world" before reneging on the agreement. Brian Chaiken of Perlman Bajandas Yevoli & Albright PL, who represents Italian inventor Andrea Rossi, told the jury that Rossi and his Leonardo Corp. are owed $89 million from licensees Cherokee Investment Partners LLC and related entity Industrial Heat LLC, which boasted about acquiring the technology for a low-energy nuclear reactor called the E-Cat through a 2012 agreement, but failed to live up to their end of the deal. "They wasted no time telling investors and potential investors that E-Cat actually works and that they were in possession of the technology," Chaiken said. At one point, in an investment memorandum, International Heat said the future success of the company was dependent on one key individual: Rossi, according to Chaiken. "They're telling their investors they've got LeBron James on their team and if they're going to the NBA Finals, they're going to ride him all the way there," he said. But International Heat changed its tune in May 2015, he said, when it successfully sold 4 percent of the company for $50 million. After that investment, Chaiken said the narrative changed, and the company began to say that Rossi was unreliable and that the test results of his E-Cat technology were unreliable. Christopher Pace of Jones Day — who represents International Heat, Cherokee, its founder Thomas Darden and manager John T. Vaughn — told jurors a different story, one in which his clients were deliberately lied to regarding the performance of the E-Cat. Under the terms of the 2012 agreement, totaling $100 million, International Heat was supposed to make three payments: first, a $1.5 million payment to buy the E-Cat equipment, then a $10 million fee for the technology, and finally an $89 million payment once the equipment passed performance tests after 400 days of operation. That performance test allegedly took place in a warehouse in Doral, Florida, but Pace told jurors the whole thing was a sham. He said his clients let Rossi take the equipment from North Carolina, where the defendants are located, to Florida because Rossi said he had found a customer that wanted to use the E-Cat and could test it in a real-world scenario. Rossi told them the customer, JM Products, was an affiliate of Johnson Matthey, a U.K.-based multinational chemical company. But Pace said his clients later discovered that JM Products was a sham company set up by third-party defendant Henry Johnson at the direction of Rossi. Pace told jurors that his clients tried to gain access to JM Products' warehouse but were blocked and told that the company was engaged in a secretive manufacturing process. When International Heat finally got an engineer into the warehouse, they found clear problems, he said. The amount of water that Rossi claimed the E-Cat machines were turning into steam each day — about 9,000 gallons — was impossible, because at most, the pumps available there could pump only 5,000 gallons of water per day, Pace said. International Heat had also called Florida Power & Light to check on the electricity records for the warehouse and found discrepancies with what Rossi was reporting, according to Pace. He said the defendants acknowledged to investors that Rossi was a risk because of previous failed business ventures and a reputation for being difficult, but they gave him latitude because they felt that he had a remarkable technology that produced clean energy cheaply. Pace argued that it is Rossi who should refund the $11 million paid out by the defendants because of the lies he told them. "Those E-Cat boxes weren't filled with magic," he told jurors. "They were simply filled with lies." The trial, which got off to a rocky start after the first jury was dismissed Thursday, is slated to last five weeks. Leonardo and Rossi are represented by John W. Annesser, Brian Chaiken and D. Porpoise Evans of Perlman Bajandas Yevoli & Albright PL. The defendants are represented by Christopher R.J. Pace, Christopher M. Lomax and Christina Mastrucci of Jones Day. The case is Andrea Rossi et al. v. Thomas Darden et al., case number 1:16-cv-21199, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. --Editing by Catherine Sum. On Sat, Jul 1, 2017 at 7:13 AM, Jones Beene <jone...@pacbell.net> wrote: > Looks like things are finally underway in Miami, barring a hurricane. July > is bit early for one, but there are already strong signs of a tropical > depression, so to speak. > > Interesting thread has turned up on LENR forum - which has been joined by > a hand's-on expert, in fact he claims to be a pipe-fitter. > > https://www.lenr-forum.com/forum/thread/4745-rossi-vs-darden > -developments-part-2/?pageNo=313 > > Rossiphiles will of course claim without any proof that this poster is > being paid by friends of Darden to influence a jury. Doubt it (that would > be very risky) ... but there is no doubt that the opinion of a professional > pipe-fitter could determine where Rossi spends the next 5 years, even if he > wins a dollar verdict. AR really screwed up his deposition royally, and > that will haunt him. > > If Rossi has perjured himself during depositions in regard to the > imaginary heat-exchanger removal, which many observers are absolutely > certain that he has done, it will not be glossed over. That prior bit of > dishonesty could be his downfall, even if he wins a verdict or back-tracks > when he gives direct testimony... maybe he claims amnesia or CLD/HPD... > (very little doubt that Rossi is afflicted with the latter see > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histrionic_personality_disorder). > > But his attorney should have warned Rossi that depositions are sworn > testimony too, and Federal Courts consider perjury to be more serious than > Rossi may realize. Beware, Andrea and beware to his attorney also. > "Subornation of perjury" is actually frowned on as much or more than the > act itself. Most ironic if the two of them win millions but cannot enjoy it > for several years. > > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subornation_of_perjury > >
