Man Fined $5000 After Suing Facebook, Has To Pay Their Court Costs Too

Facebook has had their share of lawsuits over the years, most notable the one with the Winklevoss Twins (Or is it Winklevii?) where they claimed Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO and Founder of Facebook, stole their idea.

Anyways, Paul Ceglia, a person who claims that a contract from 2003 entitled him to half ownership of Facebook, was fined $5000 after failing to turn over access to email accounts that supposedly had incriminating information.

Via AP:

“U.S. Magistrate Judge Leslie Foschio said Ceglia had delayed the case by failing to produce his email addresses and passwords dating to 2003 while his lawyers unsuccessfully challenged the August order as an invasion of privacy.”

“For whatever reasons, plaintiff, fully advised by his lawyers not to do so, chose to knowingly ignore the unambiguous orders of the court,” Foschio wrote late Tuesday. The fine is “designed to coerce plaintiff’s future compliance with all court orders in this case,” he said.”

While also being ordered to pay the fine, Paul Ceglia was also ordered to pay Facebook’s court costs which, while hasn’t been disclosed yet, is probably a pretty penny considering the high level help they have.

“Facebook’s attorneys have said they will soon move to have the case dismissed based on their experts’ findings that the documents are fake.”

Signs are pointing to the whole claim being completely false. With Facebook nearing a Billion users and an IPO that could potentially value the social network at $100 Billion, it’s no surprise that some people want a piece of the action.

Do you think this guy is telling the truth or is he just pulling their chain in order to get some money?