Stephen Baldwin sues Kevin Costner for alleged BP deception

[HMG Celebrity News] – Back in June we told you how Kevin Costner had produced a machine that would let BP clean up the Gulf after the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Well, he and Stephen Baldwin were partners in that firm, and now Stephen is claiming Kevin ripped him off.

Stephen, 44, is suing Costner in Louisiana federal court, claiming that Kev and his partners “schemed” to make him sell all his shares in the company that produced the machine, so they would make even more money when they did a deal with BP.

Known as a ‘V20,’ Kevin’s gadget is basically a high-powered centrifuge that splits the two liquids and dumps the oil in a barrel, while the water [now 99% clean] is returned to the sea. One machine can recover 2,000 barrels of oil a day.

Stephen claims he had a meeting with the 55-year old actor in April and was persuaded to become a 10% partner in the invention, which was actually designed in 1995 to help Kevin make his $175-million uber-turkey “Waterworld.”

After the movie was done, Kev bought ‘Ocean Therapy Solutions’, the firm that makes the V20, for $24-million.

The lawsuit claims Kevin made it seem like he’d already sold all his shares, but in fact he was still a major investor. Baldwin also says the company ‘misrepresented’ the fact that there was no deal to sell the V20′s to BP.

On June 9 Kevin’s firm sold 32-machines to the oil giant and earned over $52-million.

Stephen also alleges Kevin and the firm ‘duped’ him into selling his shares so they would make even more money by closing that deal, which he found out later they’d already signed when he sold them his paper.

He’s now suing Kevin and the firm for unspecified damages, but there’s been no response from the defendants so far.

Source: TMZ