Facebook says they have found the “authentic contract” between Paul Ceglia and Mark Zuckerberg that disproves Ceglia’s claim that he is entitled to over 50 percent ownership of the social networking site.
Court documents revealed Ceglia is living in Galway, Ireland at present, while Facebook is charging him with holding back electronic storage devices he intentionally tried to hide from them.
Both parties have confirmed that Ceglia hired Zuckerberg in 2003, when he was a Harvard undergrad, to do work for his StreetFax company. Though Zuckerburg says his work for Streetfax.com was not at all related to Facebook, reported Wired.
In 2010, Ceglia filed suit saying the contract also included a $1,000 initial funding for Facebook, giving birth to his claim that he is entitled to more than half of the social networking giant.
Facebook lawyers have been hard at work investigating the original contract that they say disproves the man’s involvement in the starting of Zuckerberg’s company.
"Embedded in the electronic data on Ceglia's computer... Defendants have uncovered smoking-gun evidence that the purported contract at the heart of this case is a fabrication," Zuckerberg's attorney told the New York State court.
"This entire lawsuit is a fraud and a lie," the attorneys wrote.
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The American man claiming to own half of the billion dollar site reportedly moved to Galway and it has been reported that he spent six years of his childhood in Corofin as his mother Veronica Keaveney is originally from Cummer.
Ceglia continues to fight claiming the “authentic contract” Facebook has found is shielded from use in the suit by naming them as “confidential” under the rules of an agreement between the two parties involved. Facebook is asking the federal judge in charge of the case in New York State to override that designation.
If Facebook does in fact possess a copy of the “authentic contract” and it does not show any initial investment in Facebook from Ceglia, the social networking site will beat its second legal woe since the start of the site in 2004, after the Winkelvoss twins declined to re-litigate their settlement over Zuckerberg’s alleged theft of their idea earlier this year.
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