Actor Kevin Costner came out victorious after eight days of testimony to clear his name in a lawsuit filed by Stephen Baldwin and Spyridon C. Contogouris.
The suit claimed that Costner cheated the two men out of their shares of an $18 million BP deal to buy oil-separating devices after the April 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
Baldwin and Contogouris sought more than $17 million in damages. It took a Federal jury less than two hours to decide that Costner owed nothing.
After the verdict came in Costner said, “My name means more to me than money and that’s why we didn’t settle.”
The actor went on to thank the jury, “They were really smart, and it was my good luck that they saw the truth of the story.”
Baldwin’s attorney James Cobb said, “We’re disappointed. We thought we proved rather convincingly that Mr. Costner defrauded us. The jury saw it a different way but we respect the jury’s verdict.”
Photo Credit: WENN