This one just popped up on the Wall Street Journal but it seems that a New York man claims he is owed 84% of Facebook and apparently has the contract to back it up. Paul D. Ceglia filed a suit back in June in the Supreme Court of New York’s Allegany County claiming that a contract he and Mark Zuckerberg signed in 2003 entitles hime to ownership of the company and monetary damages.
The suit is being heard by Judge Thomas Brown, who issued the restraining order earlier this month.
In his suit, Mr. Ceglia claims he signed a contract with Mr. Zuckerberg on April 28, 2003 to develop and design a website in exchange for a $1,000 fee and a 50% stake in the product. The contract stipulated that Mr. Ceglia would get an additional 1% interest in the business for every day after Jan. 1, 2004, until it was completed.
Of course the only response out of Facebook is the typical this is completely frivolous and we’ll fight tooth and nail type of statement.
Apparently the Wall Street Journal has seen a copy of the contract and says that it states the following
” “for the purchase and design of a suitable website for the project Seller [Mr. Zuckerberg] has already initiated that is designed to offer the students of Harvard university [sic] access to a wesite [sic] similar to a live functioning yearbook with the working title of ‘The Face Book.” ‘
Sounds like another case of lawyers making the real money.
