(CN) - After losing in trial against Kevin Costner, actor Stephen Baldwin has sued a law firm, claiming it concealed a $52 million deal with BP so Baldwin and his business partner would sell their shares in a business for just $1.4 million.
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Baldwin and Spyridon Contogouris sued Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell LLP and a partner in the firm, Daniel Grigsby, in Los Angeles Superior Court.
Costner is not a party to this complaint.
In June, a federal jury in New Orleans found Costner and a partner innocent of similar allegations brought by Baldwin and Contogouris.
Baldwin and Contogouris were members of Ocean Therapy Solutions, as was Costner. The company was created to sell an oil-and-water separating machine to BP after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
In the new complaint in Los Angeles, Baldwin and Contogouris claim the law firm defendants "withheld material information that they were duty-bound to disclose," and "told half-truths to plaintiffs concerning the status and terms of the deal" with Ocean Therapy Solutions (OTS).
Contogouris claims that when the BP oil catastrophe began, he knew of the oil and water separating technology that Costner had developed in the 1990s. But Costner no longer owned the rights for the technology, the plaintiffs say, so Contogouris set out to obtain the rights, and he did.
"On May 7, 2010, a joint venture to market the technology to BP ... was formed under a Joint Venture Agreement among the following individuals and legal entities: Contogouris, Baldwin, John Houghtaling, a New Orleans attorney ... West Pac Resources LLC ... an entity formed by Costner and Patrick Smith, Costner's business manager," and others, according to the complaint.
The Deepwater Horizon exploded on April 20, 2010.
Grigsby "is an attorney for OTS and participated in the formation of OTS," according to the complaint, which says he has been a partner in Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell since before May 2010.
Baldwin and Contogouris claim that discord among members of the LLC started when "a difference in business philosophy developed."
While Contogouris and another member wanted to ensure recurring business from BP by renting the technology, other members wanted to sell the technology to BP outright, according to the complaint.
In June 2010, some members of OTS met with BP officials. Contogouris claims he was there, but was asked to leave before the meeting began.
"Plaintiffs aver they were purposefully excluded from the BP meeting of this date," the complaint states.
Baldwin and Contogouris claim that at that meeting BP signed a letter of intent with Ocean Therapy Solutions in which it agreed to buy 32 oil and water separating units for $52 million, with an $18.2 million advance deposit.
Baldwin and Contogouris claim the other members of OTS concealed that information from them, and let them sell their shares in the company a few days later for a total of $1.9 million ($1.4 million for Contogouris' shares and $500,000 for Baldwin's).
They claim that on June 9, 2010, during testimony before Congress, Costner indicated that BP had placed an order for a number of units.
"Contogouris, hearing these statements, attempted to contact Costner without success. He then emailed Grigsby, requesting a meeting or a few minutes of his time," the complaint states.