You own a majority stake in Facebook? Prove it. That's essentially what Facebook lawyers said to Paul Ceglia this week, asking the court to order Ceglia to turn over the original copy of a purported ownership contract as well as emails that discuss the arrangement.
Facebook also wants permission to inspect Ceglia's computer and electronic media, according to a Thursday filing.
Who is Paul Ceglia? In 2003, he hired Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg to do coding work for a company called StreetFax. Ceglia said Zuckerberg then persuaded Ceglia to invest in Facebook—$1,000 for a 50 percent stake in the company, plus an extra 1 percent stake for every day Facebook was not online past January 1, 2004. Ceglia, therefore, claims to have an 84 percent stake in the social-networking site.
Facebook did not mince words in cutting down Ceglia's version of events. "The contract is a cut-and-paste job, the emails are complete fabrications, and this entire lawsuit is a fraud," Facebook said in a Thursday filing.
The company this week asked a New York district court to force Ceglia to produce "the original signed version of the purported contract ... the native electronic version of that document, and all the copies of the purported contract in electronic or hard-copy form." Facebook also wants copies of the emails Ceglia quoted in an earlier filing.
For good measure, Facebook also wants an order "immediately seizing, and permitting [the company] to inspect and image, all computers and electronic media in [Ceglia's] possession, custody, or control."
In April, Ceglia filed an amended complaint that included excerpts from emails allegedly written by Zuckerberg. The emails actually read like a deleted scene from "The Social Network," with Zuckerberg reportedly trying to weasel his way out of the deal, insulting Ceglia's ideas, and lying about his plans for Facebook.
"Zuckerberg has now declared under oath that he did not sign the contract attached to Ceglia's complaint, and that he did not write or receive any of the purported emails quoted in the Amended Complaint," according to Facebook.
Facebook also hired digital forensic examiners to review Zuckerberg's Harvard email account "and found none of the purported emails in it," the company said. "What they did find were the genuine emails between Ceglia and Zuckerberg from the same time period—and those emails directly contradict Ceglia's made-up story."
The only agreement signed between Zuckerberg and Ceglia related to StreetFax coding work. The duo "never discussed Facebook and they never signed a contract concerning Facebook."
Facebook accused Ceglia of doctoring the contract and fabricating the emails.
Though this all reportedly went down in 2004, Ceglia didn't actually take any legal action on the matter until last year. He told Bloomberg that he probably would have forgotten all about it had he not been arrested for fraud. Ceglia said he only unearthed the alleged contract while trying to hunt down assets to pay customers of a failed wool-pellet business.
"Ceglia's claim that he signed a contract with Zuckerberg entitling him to a significant ownership share of Facebook, Inc.—and then forgot about it for seven years—is incredible on its face, and the many indicators of fraud that permeate this case would call into serious question the allegations of any plaintiff," Facebook wrote.
Facebook pointed to Ceglia's failed business dealings and run-ins with the law as evidence that he is less than trustworthy. "If Ceglia were in fact the owner of a substantial stake in Facebook, why would he have resorted to a life of crime?" the company asked.