Costner cleared in BP spill lawsuit (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Costner cleared in BP spill lawsuit

12:27pm Friday 15th June 2012 in Entertainment News © Press Association 2013

Kevin Costner has been cleared of claims he and his business partner duped fellow actor Stephen Baldwin and a friend out of millions of dollars from their investment in an oil clean-up device tried out after BP's spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

A US federal jury deliberated for less than two hours before rejecting the lawsuit brought by Baldwin and his friend, Spyridon Contogouris.

Their lawyer had asked the eight-member jury to award the plaintiffs more than 17 million dollars (£11 million) in damages.

That is how much they estimate they would have received if they had not sold their shares in a company that marketed oil-separating centrifuges to BP before the oil giant made an 18 million dollar (£11.6 million) deposit on a 52 million dollar (£33 million) order for 32 of the devices.

The jury awarded them nothing.

Costner, who smiled and shook his lawyer's hand after the verdict, said: "My name means more to me than money and that's why we didn't settle."

Contogouris and Baldwin sold their shares for 1.4 million dollars (£900,000) and 500,000 dollars (£322,000), respectively. Baldwin testified he would have held out for much more if he had known BP had committed to ordering 32 centrifuges.

Lawyers for Costner and Smith said Baldwin and Contogouris knew that BP was preparing to order the centrifuges when they sold their shares and walked away from the company.

Baldwin's lawyer James Cobb said: "We're disappointed. We thought we proved rather convincingly that these two guys, Mr Costner and Mr Smith, defrauded us," he said. "The jury saw it a different way but we respect the jury's verdict."

He also questioned whether celebrity was a factor in the outcome "because I believe we proved our case and because the bigger celebrity won."