Costner Baldwin, Kevin Costner beats Stephen Baldwin in court Actor Kevin Costner emerged triumphant in a case that pitted him against fellow actor Stephen Baldwin over claims that Costner "duped" Baldwin out of several million dollars in a deal to sell equipment to BP in an effort to clean up the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill Baldwin had sold his shares in Costner's company shortly before the deal with BP and had claimed that Costner hid details of the pending deal before the shares were soldAfter a two-week trial, jurors deliberated for just under two hours before returning a decision in favor of Kevin Costner, who had been accused of cheating fellow actor Stephen Baldwin out of millions of dollars in a deal with BP to provide oil-cleaning machines after the 2010 Gulf oil spill.
"We're disappointed. We thought we proved rather convincingly that these two guys, Mr. Costner and Mr. Smith, defrauded us," says Baldwin's attorney, James Cobb. "The jury saw it a different way but we respect the jury's verdict."
Baldwin and a friend -- Spyridon C. Contogouris -- were seeking more than $17 million in damages. They claimed that they were unaware that Costner's company -- Ocean Therapy Solutions -- had a deal with BP when they agreed to sell their shares in the company.Actors Kevin Costner and Stephen Baldwin opened a real-life legal drama on Monday as jury selection began in a trial over Baldwin's claims that Costner cheated him out of his share of a multi-million dollar deal to sell oil-cleanup devices 2010.
Jury selection began in a New Orleans court for a federal lawsuit lodged against Costner by Baldwin and business partner, Spyridon C. Contogouris, Reuters reported.
The suit alleges that Costner, best known for his performance in "Field of Dreams" and "The Bodyguard," cheated Baldwin and Contogouris out of their share of a multi-million dollar deal under which BP bought 32 oil and water separation devices that were developed by a Costner-owned company, the news wire said.
The deal was struck after the Macondo well blew out in April 2010, spewing more than 4 million barrels of crude into the Gulf of Mexico.
According to the suit, Baldwin and Contogouris claim they were not told about the deal with BP before they agreed to sell their shares in a company that had been set up to market Costner's extraction devices.
As a result, they charge they were duped out of a portion of an $18 million deposit from BP for the devices.
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