In 1995 , Costner began developing oil separation machines based on a patent he purchased from the US government . The machines developed by the company were of little commercial interest until the Deepwater Horizon oil spill , when BP took six of the machines from a company in which Costner owned an interest , Ocean Therapy Solutions , for testing in late May 2010 . On June 16 , 2010 , BP entered into a lease with Ocean Therapy Solutions for 32 of the oil-water separation devices . Although Spyron Contoguris and Stephen Baldwin previously sold their interests in Ocean Therapy Solutions in mid-June to another investor in the company , they filed a lawsuit in Louisiana District Court claiming $ 10.64 million for securities fraud and misrepresentation . The suit claimed that Costner kept a meeting with BP secret from them , and the secret meeting resulted in an $ 18-million down payment on a $ 52 million purchase , and that after the down payment , but before any announcement , another investor used part of the downpayment to buy out their shares , thus excluding them from their share of the profits from the total sale . The suit claimed that , despite public statements by Costner , Ocean Therapy Solutions , BP and others to the contrary , Baldwin and Contogouris were told that BP was still testing the machines and had not yet committed to lease the machines from Ocean Therapy Solutions and that the other investor in Ocean Therapy Solutions purchased their shares for $ 1.4 million to Baldwin and $ 500,000 , to Contogouris . In June 2012 , a federal jury in Louisiana deliberated for less than 2 hours before rejecting Baldwin 's and Contogouris ' claims in the multimillion-dollar oil-clean-up case , and the court ordered Baldwin and Contogouris to reimburse Costner and the other defendants in the case for their costs
Deepwater Horizon oil spill
Deepwater Horizon oil spill
Kevin Costner