The jury in the W.R. Grace environmental crimes trial reached a verdict late Friday morning in Missoula, finding the company and in its former executives not guilty on all eight counts.

Former W.R. Grace executives Henry Eschenbach, Jack Wolter and Robert Bettacchi have been found not guilty on all charges.

The company and the three remaining former executives were facing criminal conspiracy, and fraud charges.

Federal judge Donald Malloy thanked the jury for their work in the case, saying "this is a case where very few people know the evidence, you do".

For complete coverage and background on this complex and long running court case, click here.

In count one the government charged the defendants with Conspiracy. A conspiracy is a kind of criminal partnership, an agreement of two or more persons to commit one or more crimes.  The agreement does not have to be formal or agreed upon in every detail; however, there must be a common plan between or among conspirators to commit the unlawful acts. W.R. Grace and former executives Henry Eschenbach, Jack Wolter and Robert Bettacchi were charged in this count.

The company is charged in Count 2 with knowingly endangering residents of Libby and Lincoln County and Grace employees by providing and distributing asbestos contaminated vermiculite, thus placing them in imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury.

Count 3 charges WR Grace, Wolter and Bettacchi with knowing endangerment based on the sale of asbestos contaminated real property, the Screening Plant to the Parker family. W.R. Grace, Wolter and Bettacchi were charged in this count.

WR Grace, Wolter, Bettacchi were charged in Count 4 with knowing endangerment for leasing asbestos contaminated property, the Export Plant, to the Burnetts and for selling the asbestos contaminated property to the City of Libby.

Count 5 charges WR Grace with falsely informing EPA that WR Grace vermiculite concentrate contained less than one percent tremolite asbestos, and that historical asbestos contamination problems at the Libby mine had been resolved.

The sixth count charges WR Grace with providing the following false information in response to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's CERCLA Request for Information.

Count 7 charges WR Grace with obstruction of justice by denying the EPA Superfund Emergency Response Team access to the property known as the "Mine Site," the "Flyway" and the "Bluffs".

The final count charges WR Grace with falsely stating to the EPA that "Grace's expanded vermiculite, which was used in ZAI (Zonolite Attic Insulation), poses no risk to human health or the environment".

We'll have a complete update on this developing story during the 5:30 News on Montana's News Station.