I listened to an interview with him, he is funding the project with his own money and that of family and friends. He has shunned “normal” methods of financing because of fear that he would lose control, which he said he had in the past. Far from sounding like a fraud, he seems to have a new idea that can improve life for the entire world.
Some have pointed to Rossi's past as evidence of him being a scam artist. But from what I gather of the 'Petrodragon' episode, he was a real inventor with real technology that just didn't pan out for technical reasons (that ran into legal issues due to resulting pollutants, etc.), not a flim-flam scammer.
So, my baloney-meter is starting to tilt towards this thing being for real. Wow. Let me say that again. Wow.