AfterDawn: News

Man sues Facebook, claims he owns 84 percent of site

The WSJ has uncovered a new suit filed by a man in New York, who claims he owns 84 percent of the social networking giant Facebook.

Paul Ceglia says he entered into a contract with Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, for a 50 percent share, doing so for $1000 USD.



In addition, Ceglia says the deal granted him 1 percent extra of the company for every day until the Web site was completed.

The site took 34 days to complete.

Ceglia's suit included a copy of the "work for hire" contract the two men allegedly signed in 2003.

In return for the $1000 payment, Ceglia "would own a 50 percent interest in the software, programming language and business interests derived from the expansion of the [Facebook] service to a larger audience."



Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 13 Jul 2010 0:43

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• 12 comments

• Jhult

  *Blinks softly and considers how anyone could come up with such a contract if this is legit* Hmmm... No I hardly doubt it is legit... But then again I have been wrong...

  13.7.2010 01:44 #1

• KillerBug

  If it is legit, it might be the most profitable $1000 investment in the history of the internet!

  13.7.2010 02:53 #2

• supersaiyaman (unverified)

  sounds like someone tryingto get mony for nothing again.

  13.7.2010 05:35 #3

• KillerBug

  It is easy to fake digital documents, and it isn't much harder to fake physical ones...but it is rather difficult to forge a signature to the point that no one can detect it as a forgery. I have a hard time believing that anyone with the skills to do such a forgery would be so stupid as to try a scam that is so exposed and large. The fact is, if this is valid, then he still owns his percentage of facebook, and the Mark is guilty of a serious felony for selling something that did not legally belong to him, without the permission of the controlling partner. He might simply try to get his portion of the money from the sale, or he could demand that his website be returned to him, and Mark would be forced to return all the money or face criminal charges (and I doubt he still has all the money).

  13.7.2010 06:07 #4

• hooter007

  why wait till now to produce the document
  also forging a signature head on is hard, turn it sideways or upside down, its just scribbles, (well so are most 'the right way up')
  

  HOOTER007

  13.7.2010 06:33 #5

• Schmick

  From http://newtech.aurum3.com/social-network...ers-dumb-fucks/
  
  Quote:Zuck: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard
  
  Zuck: Just ask.
  
  Zuck: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS
  
  [Redacted Friend's Name]: What? How’d you manage that one?
  
  Zuck: People just submitted it.
  
  Zuck: I don’t know why.
  
  Zuck: They “trust me”
  
  Zuck: Dumb fucks. Anyone who thinks Mark Zuckerberg is an upstanding citizen needs to think again. I wouldn't put it past him. This dumb fuck would get some great kicks out of seeing him get taken down a few pegs.
  

  ^ PEBKAC ^

  13.7.2010 06:53 #6

• dEwMe

  Errr well first of all people will never fail to amaze at how stupid they are. Reall good possibility it's fake. While I wonder why the guy would wait til now to come up with this, as facebook has been big for years, is beyond me the stupidity of anyone agreeing to those terms would really be amazing...
  
  

  Just my $0.02,
  
  dEwMe
  

  13.7.2010 08:38 #7

• Mysttic

  Why not wait until now? Mark made a lot selling it to google and with all the recent hype of privacy invasion, I wouldn't be surprised if his goal would be to take down facebook. Not to mention the more time flies the more $ one gets if a business does well, and Facebook is doing more than well enough. I hope we hear more about this.

  13.7.2010 10:37 #8

• hooter007

  ps that is 3 in a row,lol
  you cant erase your post,
  you can go back and edit 1 of them and leave a sorry double post mistake
  

  HOOTER007

  13.7.2010 11:15 #9

• plazma247

  Ha, looks like Mark's life system may soon come to an end.
  
  I guess if the claim is valid, marks going to be one worried bunny around now if its true.
  
  But im rather dubious that someone would:
  
  a) pay him a $1000 to create the site under a time scale and then forget about it for all this time, why the original deadline? Although if it was me and i saw what a sucess it had become, im not sure i would rush in for my claim as the price continued to spiral upwards.
  
  b) Mark or anyone would have agreed to such a deal, god knows i would never enter such a contract with a client that potentially could leave me with virtually nothing at the end of all my hard work.
  
  Could it be that mark did agree and then when told he only had a 16 percent share that he should go and F£$K him self... and now its come to bite him back.

  13.7.2010 12:38 #10

• Tristan_2

  -_- I understand the patent lawsuits to a point due to every piece of hardware made has that sticker dealing how all the patents are pending and all that stuff but these stories-_- are just plain freaking ridiculous
  

  13.7.2010 17:27 #11

• hooter007

  Originally posted by plazma247: Could it be that mark did agree and then when told he only had a 16 percent share that he should go and F£$K him self... and now its come to bite him back.
  perhaps he just tried to scam paul out of $1000 back then, never thinking the site would become a success
  

  HOOTER007

  13.7.2010 18:57 #12