Law firms like DLA Piper aren’t simple ambulance chasers. They would have done their due diligence and must have a serious case.

Wow. After reading the lawsuit I’m left completely amazed. If this is for real than the money I wasted on watching “the Social Network” was a complete waste!

Third paragraph has a grammatical error in first line. Techcrunch, take note

Third paragraph has a grammatical error in first line. Techcrunch, take note

Third paragraph has a grammatical error in first line. Techcrunch, take note

small change needed…that argument for jesus is still alive and well

small change needed…that argument for jesus is still alive and well

I looks pretty convincing. The only thing that makes me suspicious is that the mails are quite similar in style and grammatical errors no matter whom they’re from. It’s almost as though they were all written by the same person

Once again, Zuckerberg fails the integrity test.

More than just the third P, 5th, too… Copyedit much?

Wow. Really big news. DLA Piper is one of the big boys in terms of law firms. They almost give validity to this claim without any sort of litigation. Almost. Interested in seeing where this goes.

When will they stop attacking facebook???

[...] Business Insider has republished a number of number of emails that allegedly show that Mark Zuckerberg might be construed to have mislead Ceglia out of his share of the company. Meanwhile, they allegedly show Zuckerberg stalling the Winklevoss twins, not unlike a certain movie portrayed him as doing. via eu.techcrunch.com [...]

This might explain what Zuckerberg has been doing while stalling the twins.

This might explain what Zuckerberg has been doing while stalling the twins.

Poor facebook, booo.

wow this is huge

Wow, “allegedly” in the title and then three times in the body. Will be interesting to see how this plays out. No IPO until this is settled

i’d love to see the money given to charity rather than either of these two scammers.

i hope he wins. zucherberg is such a snobby douche in those emails.

The most amazing thing is the outright prima facie nature of the supporting evidence, which is not what I have come to expect in cases where an earlier, services oriented contract is tied to the equity in a later venture – its usually a much muddier deal. But, if the plaintiff goes to court with these documents as admitted evidence, that is a big deal. If these new revelatory docs and archives are whole cloth false, the attys and the plaintiff are in big trouble. If they are real, facebook will get a severe dilution and Zuch will be human again, bright, flawed, immoral in some things connected with money, and cut-throat. Entrepreneur beware when you make one off contracts.

Hollywood has already contacted DLA Piper for movie rights..

This is for real. I’m galled at Facebook’s initial response – to personally attack Ceglia and call this contract fake. The guy had some magic mushrooms in Texas ffs. He’s not exactly a murderer or anything. If anyone is swayed by such a classic textbook personal character assassination from the Facebook machine then that would be disappointing.

It’s business, not personal. If the guy signed up for 50% share and Facebook or its founder have misrepresented that contract in subsequent dealings, then they are liable for that. Furthermore it’s probably not the entity itself but the founder who are entirely liable in this case.

Either as it may, the question still stands… why wait for 7 years?

Either as it may, the question still stands… why wait for 7 years?

You can see all of the filings in the case on Justia at http://j.st/CegliaZuckerberg

and can see the amended complaint filed April 11, 2011 with email quotes and attachments at http://j.st/opv

Sounds like some big cheques are going to be written, would be shocked if this made court before a settlement!

I wish I could reply with more substance, but I’ll just simply say that there are plenty of examples of DLA taking on absurd cases that have no merit with crazy clients. I’m thinking of one whale of a client in particular.

Start with the steroid money.

Who cares about waiting 7 years? Why didn’t he call Zuckerberg’s parents like he repeatedly threatened to do in the e-mail? I think it might not be too late and he can still call them and tell them what their son is doing!

But seriously, why did everyone who had a beef with Zuckerberg back then look for alternative means to actually suing him? Winklevii go to the dean, this guy threatens to call his parents. What’s up with these people?

Who cares about waiting 7 years? Why didn’t he call Zuckerberg’s parents like he repeatedly threatened to do in the e-mail? I think it might not be too late and he can still call them and tell them what their son is doing!

But seriously, why did everyone who had a beef with Zuckerberg back then look for alternative means to actually suing him? Winklevii go to the dean, this guy threatens to call his parents. What’s up with these people?

So fake. Have you read the “emails”? They scream fake.

So fake. Have you read the “emails”? They scream fake.

Many reasons. Maybe he didn’t have enough cashflow to afford lawyers. Maybe he had other fish to fry. Maybe he wanted to just ignore it. Or maybe he just figured, there’s no point unless it’s big enough, and bada bing, 7 years later, it’s ‘big enough’…

The statute of limitations hasn’t gone away, and if someone pulls a fraud, you don’t have an obligation to sue them in 30 days.

why do they scream fake? The guy’s not a poet, but he sounds like he knows software…

I swear this whole thing is a plot by Aaron Sorkin to create a base story for The Social Network 2

I swear this whole thing is a plot by Aaron Sorkin to create a base story for The Social Network 2

it sucks to be berg

Well, he will not get 50% of Facebook but a couple of millions return on a $2000 initial investing is still great. FCBK will pay him if not for other thing than to shut his mouth. I love capitalism

Leave Facebook alooonne!

[...] Versuch den Anteil vor Gericht Einzugklagen, kam Ceglia nämlich nicht besonders weit, doch wie das US-Blog Tech-Crunch berichtet, legt er nun, mit freundlicher Unterstützung einer renommierten Anwaltskanzlei, durchaus [...]

He is really not suing facebook. He is just creation a story, plot, character for the sequel to Social Network movie….

I respect what Mark has done with Facebook being a regular user myself, BUT if these emails are legit I hope Paul gets what he is owed.

Mostly because facebook was worth nothing in those days, and Zuckerberg too… they are only suing now because they smell the color of money!!

Hollywood has been waiting for this for new ideas. Time for sequel to The Social Network

Assuming he existed at all.

it seems crazy that the law allows anyone to file a lawsuit 7 years later. they should have like a 1 year expiry on these things, otherwise mark will never get a break it seems

Mark has about 50 billion breaks…

If Ceglia’s allegations are true then the Wilnklevosses are TOTALLY full of shit because Zuckerburg started working on Facebook 8 months before he met the twins.

My question would be — whatever the outcome, what is the benefit for us, the users? Answer: none. So then this is just another waste of our time, pandering to our desire to be somehow insiders when it’s clear we are simply bystanders, in this as in most things.

Interesting balance of incentives.

Ceglia on one hand has a massive upside: he could get a huge, life-changing payoff to drop the suit, or at best 50% of Zuck’s shares. That’s certainly an incentive worth fighting for, and one to raise a boner on any ambulance-chaser.

On the other hand, his potential downside is also huge. If these e-mails and the contract are indeed fabricated, we are looking at major fraud, forgery, libel and God knows what else.

I find it hard to believe Ceglia would risk so much prison time, even with such a huge potential upside. I don’t think having his lawyers support him adds to his veracity. Lawyers are scum, and defend the worst reprobates everyday, hiding behind professional immunity.

So either Ceglia is telling the truth and Zuck is a lying, cheating weasel, or Ceglia is the world’s boldest gambler, with massive cannonballs between his legs. Both, of course, not being mutually exclusive.

Either way, grab your popcorn for The Social Network Part 2.

Maybe he was, like, in jail and had other priorities?

Read Wikipedia about Winklevosses. Zuckerbeg cowarldy cheated them. I hope one day those smart guys who were ” dumped” by that little ” berg ‘ will dump that Facebook soon or later.

Well if that’s the case then the Ceglia allegation is bogus. It is a logical impossibility for MZ to have both stolen the idea in November of 2003 AND ripped off a partner for the same idea 8 months earlier.

If Mark Zuckerberg took investment for thefacebook in April 2003 he could not have stolen the idea for thefacebook in November of 2003.

I’d say the most interesting part about this is yet to come, unless the Law Firm is run by idiots. That so much material has entered the public domain suggests that they have something even better stored away to back it up with in court. This could be better than the OJ trial

Which is what experience? Everyone makes comments, but usually have nothing to back up it.

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahhaha, thank you for that!

it’s not the idea for facebook that he stole in Nov’03 – it is the ConnectU code that was stolen from Wink’s and used in addition to another stolen code (search engine developed for the SendFax project funded by Ceglia) integrating two major parts of what theFacebook.com became in Feb’04.
I for one long thought of Zuck as a snob, ignorant narcissist and just a scumbag of a person – and do believe the emails are true. As for the grammatic issues in this particular email trail – absolutely normal for the 19 y.o. student. In addition – the stile and character shown in emails is totally believable.
Waiting for 7 years – not true, it takes time to gather all evidence and find the right Law Firm to work with in a world dominated by the overly hyped FB and the Wall Street interest in it (think investors interest) – I could see much commotion in the near future around this case.
I hope Ceglia wins full 84%(not realistic – most likely they will settle) as he seems to have been much wiser in his communications with the Zuck.

And if the contract and emails /are/ fake, then they aren’t liable and Facebook are completely justified in calling Ceglia a con-man.

It’s not, after all, character assassination if it’s true.

I have nothing against people getting rich and know you have to step on a few toes to make it to the top but this Zuckerberg guy just seems like a slime ball who greedily stabbed everyone who helped him in the back. Nice tits on his gf though.

Filing a lawsuit is freaking expensive in this country and takes up so much freaking time and effort. You’ll have a big hole in your pocket even before it goes to trial.

You can include that specifically into the contract. But, just think about it, what if the other party raises venture capital and goes into stealth mode for a year. So, by the time they launch the product, the contract has already expired…. and you cannot sue them. That would be a double whammy…. without even having the opp. to seek justice.

The Winklevoss’s deserved to cash in, but they were NOT techies, they were Business students at Harvard. I think that Ceglia’s case is hilarious, proving that Zuckerberg was a little desperate at one point when he needed funding for his ambitious plans for Facebook. I kind of hope that they can prove some of this in court, but Ceglia will probably get a couple million to settle unlike the 100 million the Winklevoss’s got, who proved in court that they had the idea for Facebook first!

and you know “it is the ConnectU code that was stolen from Wink’s and used in addition to another stolen code” how exactly?

Were you privy to the codebase?

Will be very interesting to see how this one plays out!

Will be very interesting to see how this one plays out!

How exactly do you consider Zuckerberg, a Richie Rich from Dobbs Ferry, desperate for funding? He was approached in high school to sell software he made and very well could have if he wanted to cash in and fund his own projects. Regardless, the interest of companies in high school should have been enough for his rich parents to plop down $2,000 as an investment in their son. With at least him and Randi going to Harvard, they probably shit that money out daily.

Hey John, I’m glad you noticed that Zuckerberg went to Harvard and his parents had money. Obviously not as much money as the Winklevoss twins, since he seemed to take the idea from them and run with it, almost like he resented their wealthy smug selves. And do you know Mark from Highschool? If he was such a genius that he could have had Bill Gates give him money in Highschool, not Harvard, why do all loners who think they know it all, always have all these collaborators with similar ideas?!!

No man is an island and the only thing that separates Zuckerberg from the rest is his ambition and greed!!!

[...] of Accel Partners tops Forbes’ Midas List. And now we have Paul Ceglia, a convicted felon who claims that Mark Zuckerberg sold him half of Facebook in 2003 for $1,000, and he has the contract and emails to prove it. He later put in another $1,000 [...]

[...] of Accel Partners tops Forbes’ Midas List. And now we have Paul Ceglia, a convicted felon who claims that Mark Zuckerberg sold him half of Facebook in 2003 for $1,000, and he has the contract and emails to prove it. He later put in another $1,000 [...]

legal contracts are basically whatever two people decide to put down on paper a lawyer is not
required just word and spell skills plainly stated, also if you ever print out an email you’ll
note several lines of numerical codes now think when you send an email and then a reply
or even forward it yes all numerically coded. DLP ! There good to go!

This argument you’re talking about was first presented by C.S. Lewis and went something like this 1) Jesus was a liar 2) Jesus was a lunatic and 3) Jesus was Christ, the Son of God.

In case you’re interested, C.S. Lewis’ conclusion was: “I cannot personally conclude that Jesus was a liar or a lunatic. The only other alternative is that He was the Christ, the Son of God, as He claimed”.

you mean it zucks* to be berg

Facebook Sold for 1000 Dollars Case in Court by Paul Ceglia at http://itw­el.com/fac­ebook-sold­-for-1000-­dollars-ca­se-in-cour­t-by-paul-­ceglia.php

Commenting on this rather late, but the real con-artist here is probably DLA Piper. Most likely they are raising the spector of real legal action to spook ‘Zuck or rather to shake him down a little so that he sends more of facebook’s various legal matters and IP litigation/defense work to them in the run up to an eventual IPO. I’m pretty sure DLA wouldn’t mind being awarded some pre-IPO fbook shares, in addition to their counsel fees. If ‘Zuck doesn’t want to play ball and give them some business, then they’ll keep applying pressure until the banks that would likely be involved in book running an IPO force ‘Zuck into paying their ransom just clear up any overhang; so this would seem to me to be a pretty good blackmail from a number of angles. And — No one will call DLA Piper out on it either, because all the other Silicon Valley law firms will likely want to play the same game.

[...] of Accel Partners tops Forbes’ Midas List. And now we have Paul Ceglia, a convicted felon who claims that Mark Zuckerberg sold him half of Facebook in 2003 for ,000, and he has the contract and emails to prove it. He later put in another ,000 for [...]

Facebook Sold for 1000 Dollars Case in Court by Paul Ceglia at http://bit.ly/gjqHjn

If The Social Network 2 shall be as good as the first one, then this plot is a good start. However, I feel it’s just another hype in the whole hype that FB is…

BEN MEZRICK AND KIRKPATICK + EDUARDO

ben mezrick was given copes of the emails in and around 2004 dave posted a copy of the emails to ben mezrick and to david kirkpatrick as for kirkpatrick your book is a joke and so are you :
you are just a fence jumper david kirkpatrick and its chris that is the gay one you dick ‘you sold yourself out you were given the full story of how zuckerberg stole facebook; and sold out
in a email to eduardo i told him to get a lawyer zuckerberg was going to screw him over and told him to contact ben mezrick
eduardo told me he had a lawyer he can trust but zuckerberg and the lawyer screwed him over; david made contact to ben and ben mezrick got
80% of the emails about how zuck stole facebook and about the winklevoss and that facebook was davids idea

Aaron J. Greenspan says that while he was a student at Harvard, he came up with the idea for Facebook, the social-networking Web site
An e-mail message, circulated widely by Mr. Greenspan to Harvard students on Sept. 19, 2003, describes the newest feature of houseSYSTEM, as “the Face Book,” an online system for quickly locating other students. The date was four months before Mr. Zuckerberg started his own site, originally “thefacebook.com.” Greenspan retained his college e-mail messages and provided The New York Times with copies of his communications with)zuckerberg , mark zuckerberg did not dispute the chronology of events or the authenticity of Mr. Greenspan’s e-mail messages. NOT A SURPRISE
you now aaron greenspan you can stop pretending that you do not now who david is that old trick wont work
http://www.aarongreenspan.com/authoritas.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/aa..

mzuckerb@fas.harvard.edu

AARON GREENSPAN DELUSION

By January 6, 2004, the day Mark Zuckerberg signed up for houseSYSTEM so that he could use its Universal Face Book, roughly 100 other students had opted-in as well. (At that point more than 1,200 had signed up for houseSYSTEM.) Mark spent hours poring over the site; every one of his requests was recorded by the server’s log. Two days later we met for dinner to discuss our respective experiences with the administration. While he had been formally disciplined by the College’s Administrative Board for abusing the official face books with Facemash, I had emerged with a clean record, and without so much as even a hearing

ben mezrick got
80% of the emails about how zuck stole facebook and about the winklevoss
BUT DID NOT TELL THE FULL STORY GO SEE BEN MEZICK

ben mezrick got
80% of the emails about how zuck stole facebook and about the winklevoss
ZUCKERBERG THE NARCISSIST

It all started when DAVID was logged in to the Harvard website, where I was listening in to the conversations of the Harvard students. One of these students was Mark Zuckerberg who was talking about Face Smash and he had just broken up with his girlfriend at the time, so I struck up a conversation with this Mark Zuckerberg. He was talking about creating a dating site. I thought this was a bit odd – a pie in the sky idea since he had just broken up with his girlfriend and he was slaging her off – calling her a bitch and a whore.
dave talked to Mark about the idea, and suggested he call it Face Mash. He was intrigued with my suggestion and thought it was a good idea. Mark wanted to call it Face Smash, because he wanted to smash his ex in the face. I convinced him that Face Mash was a good idea and he agreed, but one week later he changed his mind and wanted to call it Face Smash. When I queried him about this he replied ‘f…. off you c…- I’m calling it Face Smash’. Two weeks after this conversation he came up with the name Mashable and when I asked him why he chose the word Mashable instead of Face Mash he said ‘f,…off you bastard, Face mash is not your idea’. So I re-posted the conversations we had two weeks earlier and he had to apologize and said he was going with Mashable. I took this as a sign that he wanted to throw me off the scent and take the site for himself. dave found the character of Mark Zuckerberg to be deceptive and dishonest and ended conversing with Mark Zuckerberg because of his dishonesty and lack of integrity
KIRKPATRICK ZUCK ADOPTIVE FARTHER
wouldn’t paul ceglia have come forward before The Facebook Effect BUT KIRKPATRICK new about paul ceglia

kirkpatrick you are a prick kirkpatrick falls victim to the bane of many business historians infatuation with the subject and the money just a porn-star. Kirkpatrick, if you could stop swinging from Zuck’s nut-sack for a just a minute maybe you’d realize what a suck-up you really are
Kirkpatrick was given all the emails on how zuck stole the idea facebook and the contract to paul ceglia

IF YOU WONT THE TRUTH
ben mezrick got
80% of the emails about how zuck stole facebook and about the winklevoss
ZUCK is ceo facebook because he is the better THIEF! CAMERON AND TAYOR WINKLEVOSS .DIVYA NARENDRA .AARON GREENSPAN go back to Harvard,you got a F

ZUCKERBERG

narcissists think they are hot stuff. Those scoring high in narcissism tended to rate themselves as more intelligent, physically attractive, likeable and funny than others. Interestingly, they also rated themselves as having higher levels of negative aspects of narcissism, such as being power-oriented, impulsive, arrogant and prone to exaggerate their abilities! Therefore, narcissists are aware they are narcissists Narcissists are fully aware that they are narcissistic and have a narcissistic reputation Narcissists are unlikely to change unless they think changing will benefit the things they desire, such as status and power
Narcissists feel the need to maintain a positive self-image and they will set aside ethical concerns to get what they want.”
YES you are aware that you stole the idea facebook but not from the winklevoss OR FROM AARON GREENSPAN

MARK ZUCKERBERG GIRLFRIEND

yes zuckerberg got a girlfriend and no he did not get her from GRAIGS-LIST . but he did break up with his girlfriend and look for love on graigs-list or as zuckerberg put it looking for a new bitch .zuck did not realize that you had to pay for the girls on graigs-list .zuck sad what do you mean you have to pay you pay and if you are unlucky you have to pay twice when you have go to the clinic ; zuckerberg saw every thing as a possession some thing to take when he stole the idea facebook and his girlfriend ; zuckerberg social skills are that poor zuck can not pick up sand if he was standing in the middle of a desert and had to go back to his old girlfriend that is all he had ; facemash and facebook was zuckerberg quest to understand woman FAIL : zuckerberg ordered his girlfriend to follow him to california but refused and the break up lasted for 6 mouth

That problem is eliminated with a prostitute because they’ll go with anybody — it’s part of their job description. And so that’s why they’re frequent targets.

In case people don;’t know Zuckerberg is a weasel.

I call BS.

$2000 funding? I assume this case will go to small claim court? lol

Fascinating stuff. Who knew the origins of Facebook were so murky?

[...] Well looks like another lawsuit has just surfaced. This gent claims he lent Zuck $2000 for 50% of facebook. If this is true he is the most successful tech investor of all time You can read more here if you like. [...]

[...] “preposterous”). Commentators noted that Ceglia appeared to lack credibility because he was convicted of fraud related to his wood pellet company, and when he was asked why he waited seven years to file suit, [...]

[...] 2011 in Uncategorized Maybe the ol’ trustfund just kicked in. Maybe you’ve decided you too own a chunk of Facebook, and actually managed to get them to settle. Whatever the case, [...]

[...] the ol’ trustfund just kicked in. Maybe you’ve decided you too own a chunk of Facebook, and actually managed to get them to settle. Whatever the case, you’re [...]

[...] the ol’ trustfund just kicked in. Maybe you’ve decided you too own a chunk of Facebook, and actually managed to get them to settle. Whatever the case, [...]

[...] the ol’ trustfund just kicked in. Maybe you’ve decided you too own a chunk of Facebook, and actually managed to get them to settle. Whatever the case, [...]

[...] the ol’ trustfund just kicked in. Maybe you’ve decided you too own a chunk of Facebook, and actually managed to get them to settle. Whatever the case, [...]

[...] More Money Than Taste Maybe the ol’ trustfund just kicked in. Maybe you’ve decided you too own a chunk of Facebook, and actually managed to get them to settle. Whatever the case, [...]

[...] the ol’ trustfund just kicked in. Maybe you’ve decided you too own a chunk of Facebook, and actually managed to get them to settle. Whatever the case, [...]

[...] 2011 at 6:09 am   Maybe the ol’ trustfund just kicked in. Maybe you’ve decided you too own a chunk of Facebook, and actually managed to get them to settle. Whatever the case, you’re [...]

[...] Leave a Comment Written by adminMaybe the ol’ trustfund just kicked in. Maybe you’ve decided you too own a chunk of Facebook, and actually managed to get them to settle. Whatever the case, you’re [...]

[...] More Money Than Taste Maybe the ol’ trustfund just kicked in. Maybe you’ve decided you too own a chunk of Facebook, and actually managed to get them to settle. Whatever the case, [...]

[...] More Money Than Taste Maybe the ol’ trustfund just kicked in. Maybe you’ve decided you too own a chunk of Facebook, and actually managed to get them to settle. Whatever the case, [...]

[...] the ol’ trustfund just kicked in. Maybe you’ve decided you too own a chunk of Facebook, and actually managed to get them to settle. Whatever the case, [...]

[...] the ol’ trustfund just kicked in. Maybe you’ve decided you too own a chunk of Facebook, and actually managed to get them to settle. Whatever the case, you’re [...]

[...] the ol’ trustfund just kicked in. Maybe you’ve decided you too own a chunk of Facebook, and actually managed to get them to settle. Whatever the case, [...]

[...] the ol’ trustfund just kicked in. Maybe you’ve decided you too own a piece of Facebook, and truly managed to get them to settle. Regardless of the case, [...]

Facebook dismissed the claims. But now he’s back with DLA Piper, a bigger law firm used to tech cases, which has gone through his email archive with a fine toothed comb and bullet express

[...] the ol’ trustfund just kicked in. Maybe you’ve decided you too own a chunk of Facebook, and actually managed to get them to settle. Whatever the case, [...]

[...] of Accel Partners tops Forbes’ Midas List. And now we have Paul Ceglia, a convicted felon who claims that Mark Zuckerberg sold him half of Facebook in 2003 for $1,000, and he has the contract and emails to prove it. He later put in another $1,000 [...]

[...] the ol’ trustfund just kicked in. Maybe you’ve decided you too own a chunk of Facebook, and actually managed to get them to settle. Whatever the case, [...]