Zuckerberg: Facebook claim forged
AN ALLEGED contract and emails that a New York man says entitle him to a huge stake in Facebook are forgeries, the online social network’s founder Mark Zuckerberg said.
In a filing in the US district court in Buffalo, New York, yesterday Zuckerberg said he has declared under oath that he neither signed the alleged contract with Paul Ceglia, nor wrote or received any related emails.
He asked a federal judge to order Ceglia to immediately turn over the alleged original contract and emails, and for permission to inspect Ceglia’s computers.
“Zuckerberg and Ceglia never discussed Facebook and they never signed a contract concerning Facebook,” the filing said. “The contract is a cut-and-paste job, the emails are complete fabrications, and this entire lawsuit is a fraud.”
Christopher “Kip” Hall, a partner at DLA Piper representing Ceglia, did not immediately return requests for comment.
Yesterday’s filing escalates the stakes as Ceglia, a wood pellet salesman from Wellsville, New York, tries to show he contracted in 2003 for 50 per cent of Zuckerberg’s interest in what became Facebook, which is privately held.
In yesterday’s filing, Zuckerberg acknowledged signing an agreement with Ceglia, but that it concerned work Zuckerberg did for StreetFax.com, a website that posted photographs of traffic intersections for use in the insurance industry. Ceglia sued last July, saying he made a contract with Zuckerberg for an 84 per cent Facebook stake.
After he changed law firms, Ceglia filed a complaint that discussed the alleged contract and emails from 2003 and 2004 when Zuckerberg was a student at Harvard University.