Mark Zuckerberg’s struggle to prove that he invented and owns Facebook continues, seven years after the site launched out of a Harvard dorm room. His latest adversary is a gentleman named Paul Ceglia, who says he had forgotten about the contract he signed with Zuckerberg back in 2003, only to stumble upon it when he was going through his files after criminal fraud charges were filed against him and his wood-pellet company. Facebook calls him a convicted felon and a liar. They’re right about the first part, but haven’t yet proved the second. Enter the courts.While Ceglia was dismissed by many as a crackpot last year, he’s returned with some convincing emails – convincing as in not fake, as Facebook charges, and convincing because they’re so badly written, and seem to reflect the image of Mark Zuckerberg that’s already been laid out in court and cast in the movies. Also: the documents have been vetted by DLA Piper, Ceglia’s new and very large and scrupulous law firm. Two of the smoking guns are emails between Ceglia and Zuckerberg in which the latter explains that the former’s 80% stake in “Face Book” – due to tardiness with the site – is way too much, and would he please be satisfied with 50%.
Zuckerberg dismissed the idea of selling “junk” on the site, though, incidentally, the idea of providing suicide prevention on Facebook just became a reality this month. As for the terms of Ceglia’s ownership, no other agreement was reached, according to the emails, beyond the original one that would have given Ceglia that 80% stake. That summer, Zuckerberg would tell Ceglia he wanted to return his $2000 to him, explaining that he had grown tired of Facebook and was onto other projects. He never did. And he never went on to “other projects,” other than turning Facebook into an Internet behemoth.Today, fifty percent of Mark Zuckerberg’s stake would equal roughly $10 billion.viaBusinessInsider
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