Who is James A. Bass? (CONFIRMED ACCORDING TO IH?)

The identity of James A. Bass is something both skeptic and supporter should want to know.

If James A. Bass is truly connected to Johnson Matthey, then it gives credence to a real industrial process, possibly endothermic, taking place in Doral, Florida. His testimony could verify that the E-Cat was producing excess heat and the electrical cost per unit of product produced was low.

If James A. Bass was a fictitious entity created by Andrea Rossi or Leonardo Corporation, then it gives credence to the idea there was no industrial process taking place, no customer existed, and there is no one else other than Rossi and the ERV that can verify excess heat being produced.

Supporters and Skeptics of the reality of the E-Cat should put their differences aside to find out the truth about James A. Bass. A few items of interest would be:

1) His true identity which may be James A. Bass or someone else.

2) His educational and employment history.

3) His background with endothermic industrial processes.

4) His connection with JM Chemical Products.

The way I see it, James A. Bass is the corner stone of both possibilities: that the one year long test was a success producing massive excess heat OR that the test was a fraud.

Let's begin!

DISCLAIMER: I do not promote any illegal, unlawful, unethical, or rude conduct to uncover this information.

Quote from Eric Walker

Very recently several subpoenas were quashed, possibly on the understanding that James Bass is a real person and his contact information can be obtained through other means. (This is just speculation about why the subpoenas were quashed, and the actual reason might have been unrelated.) In this scenario, if James Bass is not real and is instead a fictitious persona enacted by someone that posed as him, the quashing of the subpoenas may become a liability for the Leonardo counter-defense. In such a scenario Perlman, Bajandas are going to get very nervous as they continue to pull on this thread and things get weirder and weirder.

We do not know the extent of the "informal discvoery hearing" before the Magistrate. There may have been many subpoenas that were allowed to go through. What we know is that three were quashed and one was suspended.

The three quashed were to two banks and one accountant. I don't think these necessarily had to do with Bass, but it's possible. My sense is that this was over-reaching, that the relevant parties could be questioned, i.e., Johnson or Rossi, maybe Fabiani. This is not a criminal inquiry; were this a criminal investigation of fraud, search warrants would have been served immediately. So if I understand the structure here, Jones Day can ask Johnson about payments to Bass, and Johnson must answer under penalty of perjury. However, Jones Day cannot go to Johnson's bank or accountant to obtain private information. Not without a clear showing of necessity.

With Bass, however, the Magistrate revealed that this was about Bass. There Jones Day had a much stronger argument, probably along the lines of "J.M Products won't tell us the whereabouts of James Bass, so that we can add him as a defendant, perhaps, or subpoena him or at least question him. So please allow this warrant to the cell phone provider." Since the attorney representing Johnson was opposing the subpoena, apparently, the judge decided to give Johnson four days to respond with the information, or else the subpoena goes through.

Not mentioned much is Barry West. Barry was there, and appears to have been a true IH employee or contractor, not a faux one (as Fabiani apparently was, actually serving Rossi.) They were both there to assist Rossi, but Fabiani's contracted job included reporting to IH. Barry West presumably interacted with Rossi and Fabiani, extensively, being in close proximity for a year. He would have interacted with Bass.

Quote from Shane D.

Who this James Bass is, is interesting, but I sure would like to know more about the customer. If IH has proof the customer was faked...as they claimed numerous times in various filings, then why have they not asked for the case to be dismissed based on that? That would seem a slam dunk "case dismissed" by the judge.

And if they know the customer was make believe, this Bass guy is a side show. That said, they could be tying up loose ends looking for Bass, before taking their plea of Fraud/Deceit/Unclean Hands, to the judge.

It seems common that the process is not understood. If Rossi ran a comedy act in Doral, it could show a sense of humor (hey, "Johnson Matthew") or it could show fraud, and this is a factual question. The issue of the fake customer is, in the end, about what Rossi did to convince IH to ship the devices to Florida. The central claim around that is that this was done to set up a fake "GPT" under full Rossi control. A fake "engineer" -- James A. Bass -- is just a piece of the evidence to establish that.

However, there is currently a motion for Judgment on a core issue. It is framed as a repeat of the argument about the "Six Cylinder Unit" in the original Motion to Dismiss, which was set aside by the Judge who wanted to see more evidence before ruling. There is now more evidence: there are the evidences in the Amended Answer, and Rossi has had an opportunity to reply on the issue and hasn't.

The prior ruling by the Judge implied that if the "Six Cylinder Unit" was different from the E-Cat Unit run in Doral, she would have dismissed Count 1. Obviously, Rossi could claim estoppel, but this gets much more difficult than a mere delay. It seems apparent that Rossi has no evidence adequate to establish estoppel on this issue and then the even deeper one of lack of a written agreement to the start of the GPT -- which is distinct and different from a power installation, set up for the sale of power, with no mention of "test."

Rossi can avoid this by alleging something specific. In a reply to the Answer, I think. It would need to be enough that a jury might conclude estoppel, instead of what is increasingly obvious: Rossi deception.

James Bass is Domenico Fioravanti. Find him and the mystery is over.

http://www.e-catworld.com/2011…ctrical-power-from-e-cat/

James A. Bass is not a sideshow.

If he was a real entity, not an actor, then he would be able to provide information that could confirm the customer had a relationship with Johnson Matthey, that an industrial process was indeed taking place at the Doral site, that the heat from the manufacturing plant was endothermically absorbed, that the one megawatt of heat was being transferred through the pipe that IH claims was far too small in diameter, that product was manufactured and transported away, etc. Basically, he could potentially renounce many of IH's accusations against Andrea Rossi and Leonardo Corp.

If he was an actor, just imagine the information he could provide the court, under oath, that could enhance IH's claim that Rossi engaged in deceptive behavior. He could be asked to explain who hired him, who briefed him on what to say about the plant, how funds were transferred to him, etc. This would make the test of the one megawatt plant look like one giant scam. And even if it wasn't and some smaller level of excess heat was produced, no one would trust the results of any test Andrea Rossi was involved in ever again. The skeptics that claim the E-Cat never worked and never will work would WIN, even if the "Rossi Effect" is real.

Irregardless as to if the one megawatt plant produced "any" excess heat or if previous versions of the E-Cat technology worked, identifying and finding out the truth about James A. Bass has the potential to reveal a huge amount of information. This should be the main focus of every supporter and every skeptic. If you are a supporter and want to see the truth that one megawatt of heat was being produced and used in a highly endothermic manufacturing process revealed to the world, then confirming that James A. Bass truly was James A. Bass should be your top priority. If you are a cynic and want to see Rossi and his technology discredited, want to watch as a massive scam is unraveled, and desire to see Andrea Rossi's research into LENR brought to a complete halt, then confirming that James A. Bass was an actor should be your top priority.

I for one do not believe that Andrea Rossi and his lawyer would have instigated the lawsuit knowing that they had hired an actor to pretend to be the Director of Engineering for JM Products. Doing so would be totally insane -- it would be like asking to lose from the start. However, if James A. Bass was an actor and paid to lie about a manufacturing process that did not exist (which could be revealed if the actor was questioned under oath) then I would still want the truth revealed. If Industrial Heat has been right all along about James A. Bass and their other claims, then Andrea Rossi deserves to be exposed as a conman to the entire world so no one will ever do business with him again.

In conclusion, James A. Bass is not a sideshow. He is the most critical figure in this whole court case. If identified and questioned under oath, he could solve this mystery once and for all.

@MrSelfSustain

What if Bass can't be found like Fiovaranti could not be found? The most probable scenario is that he was hired by Rossi and well paid but told to disappear without a trace after the fiasco. Like Fioravanti (I never can spell that name right but since it's a fiction anyway, it doesn't matter). This is probably where Rossi got the name to use for the fictitious engineer and NATO colonel (LOL): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domenico_Fioravanti

Quote from Mary Yugo

James Bass is Domenico Fioravanti. Find him and the mystery is over.

<a href="http://www.e-catworld.com/2011/11/25/andrea-rossi-working-with-domenico-fioravanti-on-electrical-power-from-e-cat/" class="externalURL" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">e-catworld.com/2011/11/25/andr…ctrical-power-from-e-cat/</a>

What evidence do you have that James A. Bass was Domenico Fioravanti?

The link you provided is from 2011. I have seen no reference that Rossi has been working with Domenico Fioravanti in recent times.

Quote from Jami

Nowhere in Rossi's complaint is the "customer" mentioned as an entity which has to be independent or otherwise. So how would proof that it isn't an independent entity make dismissal of Rossi's claims a slam dunk?

It would not. However, a fake customer is evidence that the Doral "test" was a deception, a ruse, to allow setting up a fake "Guaranteed Performance Test" by setting up an operating installation and, then, presumably, asking IH to support Penon measuring output. All the elements of a GPT except one: consent to the start by Industrial Heat. It is apparent that during negotiation for the Doral installation, the issue of "GPT" was avoided. There was no mention of "test" in that. Rather, there were independent reasons presented to induce IH to agree. Such as $30,000 per month if it worked!

In the Complaint, Rossi presents the move to Florida as an attempt to set up the GPT when it could not be done in North Carolina. This is quite different from what the evidence shows, so far. His mail to Darden, DE:29.16 (I use that reference because 30.16 is an exact copy), actually has:

Quote

Your proposal to put the plant in a factory owned by yourself at least until recently is dramatically less convincing.

"At least until recently" refers to the factory having been the property of IH or Cherokee, but now being independently owned. "Less convincing" to whom? To the "Customers-Investors-Visitors" that he was suggesting could be impressed. This would be irrelevant to a GPT, where the opinion that matters would be the ERV opinion. And for a thorough test, an independent ERV would be highly interested in the "customer area," and would have had, in North Carolina, we suspect, full access. Did the ERV in Doral inspect the "customer area"? Rossi presents his opinion, on Mats' blog as it being unnecessary. Unnecessary? In a test where $89 million is supposedly at stake, all evidence would be examined. Let's put it this way: it would be highly desirable, and IH would not have agreed to a GPT under the Doral conditions, as later defined by Rossi (and Johnson?). But for a power sale, not a problem.

Nevertheless, for the purpose of impressing "Customers-Investors-Visitors" that the steam went into a concealed area with no sign of actual power consumption there, would be radically unconvincing, not "dramatically" more.

Rossi was "dramatically" deceptive. My guess is that he has not replied to the Answer because it's difficult, his attorneys are telling him there are problems, and so he is attempting to gain time. Hence the basically BS motions.

IH has no standing to countersue? But paid the expenses and is sued by Rossi? What? IPH, the assignee, is "wholly owned," and there is no clue that the assignment removes operating responsibility from IH. If they could be sued, surely they can counter-sue. This is completely nuts. Who paid for Fabiani, Barry West, and perhaps part of Penon's cost? Not IPH, which is only an IP holding company, not an operating company.

Quote from Mary Yugo

<a href="https://www.lenr-forum.com/forum/index.php/User/1827-MrSelfSustain/">@MrSelfSustain</a>

What if Bass can't be found like Fiovaranti could not be found? The most probable scenario is that he was hired by Rossi and well paid but told to disappear without a trace after the fiasco. Like Fioravanti (I never can spell that name…

I am not convinced it was Fiovaranti. That is plausible, but I do not see any evidence other than Andrea Rossi associated with him in the past.

If James A. Bass was really someone else, then I'm certain Andrea Rossi would know exactly who had access to the Doral site and would have contact information. I'm not a lawyer, so I do not know if this is possible, but could the court charge Andrea Rossi or his lawyer with contempt of court if they did not identify and/or share all their knowledge about how to contact the Director of Engineering?

My guess is if it is discovered that James A. Bass was an actor and his true identity was revealed, that the collective detective skills of this community and others on the internet could locate him.

Quote from MrSelfSustain

Mary Yugo wrote:
<a href="https://www.lenr-forum.com/forum/index.php/User/1827-MrSelfSustain/">@MrSelfSustain</a>

I am not convinced it was Fiovaranti. That is plausible, but I do not see any evidence other than Andrea Rossi associated with him in the past.

Okay, SelfSustain, a program. "Mary Yugo" is a very long-term pseudoskeptic, and one of the regular traits of pseudoskpetics is to take a possibility and assert it as a probability, because it is consistent with held belief. Here, the held belief is that Rossi is a fraud. Now, most of us now agree with that, but ... this does not convert to simplifying everything the way "Mary" -- who is not a "Mary" -- wants. If Rossi needed an actor in Florida, would he fly Fioravanti in from Italy? Maybe. It's possible. But would he have an Italian accent? At that point, there may still have been some pretense that the "customer" was really Johnson Matthey. I suppose they could hire an Italian engineer, but it would raise questions. More likely, it was someone who looked and talked like we might expect from "James A. Bass." IH is on the trail, JM Products has until Tuesday to provide contact information for their supposed "engineer" or else the subpoena to T-Mobile may be enforced.

Quote

If James A. Bass was really someone else, then I'm certain Andrea Rossi would know exactly who had access to the Doral site and would have contact information. I'm not a lawyer, so I do not know if this is possible, but could the court charge Andrea Rossi or his lawyer with contempt of court if they did not identify and/or share all their knowledge about how to contact the Director of Engineering?

Not yet. If, however, they refuse an order of the court, they could be charged. As far as I can tell, they have not been ordered to provide "all information." They may have been asked questions that they have not answered yet. The subpoenas were an attempt to bypass the question and answer process, denied with respect to the banks and an accountant, but effectively confirmed with respect to the cell phone provider, if information is not forthcoming. So they can still refuse -- or fail -- to provide it, no contempt sword hanging in the air. Yet.

Quote

My guess is if it is discovered that James A. Bass was an actor and his true identity was revealed, that the collective detective skills of this community and others on the internet could locate him.

Maybe. So could IH, and they have professionals that can do this.

In reality, this is a fairly minor issue -- unless it isn't, i.e., unless there was a real, independent customer, in which case we would think that JM Products would be eager themselves to find him. So why did the attorney for Johnson (probably) argue against the subpoena, since they would also want to know where he is?

The answer to that is fairly obvious: they are hiding something. The excuse will be "the identity of the customer." Yet apparently Johnson and Rossi represented that it was actually Johnson Matthey, at least that's been claimed by IH, and that letterhead somewhat confirms it (document 29.18), and the "platinum sponge". However, what critical interest would Johnson Matthey have now, in maintaining privacy? A connection with Rossi? Not that damaging, if there was actually a real plant! It is not running any more. What they actually did there could still be secret. Etc.

But Rossi is claiming it was not Johnson Matthey. He obviously realized at some point that IH would check with the real Johnson Matthey. So, heh! heh! Our little joke! Don't they have a sense of humor?

If Rossi and Johnson cannot establish the reality of the customer, at trial it will end up being assumed that the real customer was Johnson, intimately involved with Rossi, and a part of the conspiracy to defraud IH by setting up a phony GPT under Rossi control. There is quite enough evidence already for this to be based on the preponderance of the evidence.

But this is not likely to go to trial.

Now look whose blood is short of iron(y).

The following is written from the perspective that the whole test was a fraud and IH's claims are all true. For the record, I do not believe this to be the case, and I think that James A. Bass was likely a real person with some sort of connection (even if loose) to Johnson Matthey -- not an actor. But I could be wrong.

If James A. Bass was an actor (not someone from Hollywood but lets say an individual with some engineering experience and capable of using the lingo in discussions) then identifying him and having him testify under oath would bring down the entire scheme. If forced to disclose the true about hiring an actor, Rossi and his lawyer would both have reasons to hold elements back from their testimony and be less than totally forthcoming. They would be so wrapped up in lies that they'd strive to share the least amount of information permissible, most likely pleading the fifth amendment. However, the actor who played James A. Bass would know that divulging EVERYTHING would be his best bet. Perhaps Industrial Heat or the court could cut him some sort of deal in exchange for him sharing everything he knew. Depending upon what level of access he had to the "plant" and what Rossi and Johnson had told him, his testimony could be extremely damaging and he'd have a reason to share EVERYTHING: the lack of manufacturing, the lack of excess heat, the instructions he received from Rossi and Johnson to delude IH/Investors, the lack of any product coming or going from the plant, the lack of any connection to Johnson Matthey, the faked invoices, etc. Rossi or Johnson might hold back, but his testimony would be damning.

Again, the above is in the hypothetical scenerio that IH's claims are all accurate. I do not believe this to be the case. My thinking is that his real name was actually James A. Bass, he was a Director of Engineering, and had some connection to Johnson Matthey. Perhaps he did not work for Johnson Matthey, but he could be an expert in their machines or merchandise. I expect he will confirm that manufacturing did take place.

Quote from JedRothwell

MrSelfSustain wrote:

True, and you can say the same for Rossi's lawyer, Johnson. He may not know much about technology, but he must have known the JM company was conducting no business and that it had no employees. He must know it was all fraud. If they (the authorities, not I.H. directly) can threaten him with a criminal investigation and the loss of his licence to practice law, I expect he will sing. That will bring down the whole absurd paper mache edifice.

Normally, a client's lawyer cannot be called to testify. However, Johnson here was not acting as Rossi's lawyer. He is the President of Leonardo Corporation and the President of JM Products. He is in this up to his eyeballs, maybe over his head.

Quote

I expect I.H. knows that Bass is mythical. They must have conducted a search for him before filing the Answer.

Probably back in 2015 when they first learned about Bass. By 2014, I strongly suspect, IH already "strongly suspected" that Rossi was not being honest with them. They allowed the Florida installation because Rossi made it irresistible, more or less, "Free money! Come and get it!" I.e., let us pay you for this Plant. Here, meet Mr. Johnson, he'll sign the papers (psst! it's a secret, but surely you have heard of Johnson Matthey?)

The totally amazing thing is how clumsy this all was, at the same time as being intricate, that is, the Plants were intricate constructions. Then there was the "customer area," designed like some juvenile's idea of what such should look like, with no facility for easily moving product in and out. And no substantial cooling visible.

Quote

If they can nail Johnson, they do not need the mythical Mr. Bass. Or if they can get Penon to admit he was lying, they will win. I doubt they can get him, because I gather he cannot be forced to testify if he flees to Italy. I have also heard that Rossi's case will collapse without Penon's testimony, but I wouldn't know about that.

I rather doubt the case will get that far. However, without Penon's testimony, there goes the ERV Report as something useful to Rossi, that's my opinion. How did Rossi imagine he could get away with all this? It boggles my mind. I can imagine it, but I need to imagine serious impairment of cognitive process, grandiosity and paranoia. Then I wonder at the legal advice he got from Annesser. Annesser's Complaint reflected Rossi reactivity, not a sober lawyer's reframing in less reactive -- but legally powerful -- terms. The recent Motions do the same. I see no sign of an improvement, yet, from the involvement of the new firm. I suspect they are not yet up to speed on this.

Quote

MrSelfSustain wrote:

I believe it. Rossi and his lawyer are stupid. Rossi's test was a transparent put-up job. It was utterly unconvincing. His data alone screamed "fraud!!!" The additional details revealed in Exhibit 5 is added proof. The only mystery is why he expected to get away with it, and get paid the $89 million.

If one is interest in Rossi psychology, I recommend reading a lot of the blog. Many suspect that Rossi writes comments on the blog in order to set up responses, which adds more to the mix. I have not studied this enough to have a firm opinion, beyond noting that it certainly seems so, in some cases. The commentors too perfectly set up Rossi Answers, and they use his language, etc. Even without that, though, Rossi's world view and his reactivity are apparent. Criticism of him is "paid." He just claimed that about me, based on a relatively harmless comment here, misreported to him (probably by him!), with his reaction being entirely out of proportion to the stimulus. He doesn't understand what is going on -- or he does and is a cynical manipulator of his followers.

I am, however, looking at the history, inclined toward a serious personality disorder, not ordinary commercial fraud, even though it ends up creating such. I just wrote a little dialog of the Judge quizzing Rossi's attorney about "Six Cylinder Unit." The Judge ends with closing the hearing with a conclusion being obvious. I was tempted to add to this Rossi's immediate response, that he started screaming about snakes and the conspiracy against him, and it was necessary for the bailiff to subdue him, and he was transported to a local hospital. All fantasy, but ... the only real difference is that he has only reacted like this in writing, as far as I know.

He had good prospects for obtaining additional investment, early this year. Only problem: he had promised an ERV report. Let's suppose he had not done that. It looked like he had IH support. That was a plus. If IH had been dealing with him for four years, he must be okay.

And then he sued IH. As a business decision, with what we know, this was totally insane. He did it quickly. The filing included some errors demonstrating haste and lack of cautious review before filing: the inclusion of the document naming JM Chemical Products and Johnson, for example. Misfiled with the Agreement, which was two years earlier, probably a pure accident -- and made the identity of the customer visible as Johnson. And then leaning on the Second Amendment that wasn't signed by all the parties as explicitly required. This shows that Annesser wasn't careful. That could have been fixed and much trouble would have been avoided! Just sign the damn thing, and Ampenergo probably would have signed, if they did not sign already (maybe they did!).

We do not know if Johnson approved of the filing. For all we know, his reaction might have been "You WHAT?!?" We don't know that he was informed in advance. If he has any smarts, I can't imagine him thinking it was a good idea. Yeah, we set up this fake customer, but surely that was harmless. What's the difference? it's just a power sale, and Andrea, you are covering the power, right? You tell me how much power was delivered. If you don't give me the money, I'm not paying them! How could there be any harm here? After all, we are paying them, not the other way around!

Did Johnson even know about the Guaranteed Performance Test? I would not assume he did. That, then, makes his behavior more justifiable. he was just doing a favor and had no idea that it could be contributing to a serious fraud.

(I just wrote, above, the basis of a defense for Johnson. Johnson's best defense here is to immediately disclose the truth and the whole truth. Unless he really was a knowing party to a fraud, in which case ... he needs solid counsel. It sucks when one is actually guilty, though as life advice: it is still the best to come clean, in the long run.)