Entrepreneur who sued for half of Facebook faces jail time instead
The man who two years ago claimed that a contract he had with Mark Zuckerberg in 2003 entitled him to more than half of Facebook has been arrested and charged with a multi-billion fraud plot.
Ceglia: Accused of giant fraud plot
If convicted, entrepreneur Paul Ceglia, 39, of Wellsville, New York , could face up to 40 years in prison.
Prosecutors say that Ceglia filed a sham lawsuit claiming to have been promised a 50 percent share of Facebook. He is then alleged to have doctored, fabricated and destroyed evidence to support his allegations.
Zuckerberg all along had flatly denied the claim from the man who once hired him fo a street-mapping project. Facebook lawyers insisted Ceglia, was a scam artist
"Ceglia's alleged conduct not only constitutes a massive fraud attempt, but also an attempted corruption of our legal system through the manufacture of false evidence," said Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan.
"Dressing up a fraud as a lawsuit does not immunise you from prosecution."
Ceglia's claims came around the same time that "The Social Network," the film telling the tale of Zuckerberg's legal battle with his Harvard schoolmates, the Winklevoss twins, was released. The Winklevosses were eventually paid at least $65 million to settle.
Ceglia and Zuckerberg met nine years ago, when Zuckerberg was a student at Harvard. Ceglia had advertised for a programmer for a street-mapping Internet business . Zuckerberg replied , and Ceglia agreed to pay him $1,000 for his work.
Months later, in his college dorm room, Zuckerberg started the business that became Facebook.
Zuckerberg did not hear from Ceglia again until 2010, when he filed the lawsuit claiming he was entitled to a giant ownership stake in Facebook.
According to the lawsuit, Zuckerberg had promised him a substantial interest in either "The Face Book" or "The Page Book."
Attached to the legal papers was a contract that contained language giving Ceglia an interest in Zuckerberg's startup. The filing also included emails that purported to show the two collaborating on ideas for the social networking business.
Federal prosecutors say that Ceglia's claims were entirely false. Government investigators searched Ceglia's hard drive and discovered the original contract, which had no reference to Facebook. And Harvard's email servers had no record of the supposed emails.
Facebook lawyers say they intend to hold accountable "all of those who assisted Ceglia in this outrageous fraud."