A day after winning a court ruling over charges that he copied the idea for Facebook from his fellow Harvard students, Mark Zuckerberg faced a new challenge Tuesday from an investor who claimed ownership of half the company, dpa reported.
The website Business Insider published emails purportedly between Zuckerberg and claimant Paul Ceglia which show that Ceglia invested the initial 2,000 dollars needed to get Facebook off the ground.
Ceglia, who is charged with fraud in connection with a wood-pellet company he operated, claims that he had a contract with Zuckerberg entitling him to half the company in return for funding its initial phase.
The emails, dating from 2003 and 2004, purportedly show the two entrepreneurs discussing the project in detail, including Zuckerberg's strategy for stalling a rival project by his fellow Harvard students, the Winklevoss twins.
The purported emails also show Zuckerberg offering to return Ceglia his 2,000 dollar investment in 2004 because the site development was not going well, at the same time as he was moving to California to incorporate the company and arrange new funding.
The report said that Ceglia is represented by prominent technology law firm DLA Piper which said that it had thoroughly vetted the emails to assure their authenticity. Facebook said that Ceglia is a "scam artist" and that it is certain that the purported emails and contract are fake.
The details emerged a day after the Winklevoss twins, whose role in the founding of the leading social media site featured prominently in the film The Social Network, lost their appeal to increase the cash they received from Zuckerberg as part of their legal settlement.
They had argued that Zuckerberg misled them about the value of the company prior to their 2008 settlement. But the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals said that the settlement was fair and should be allowed to stand.
"With the help of a team of lawyers and a financial advisor, they made a deal that appears quite favorable in light of recent market activity," Judge Alex Kozinski wrote in his 11-page opinion. "For whatever the reason, they now want to back out. Like the district court, we see no basis for allowing them to do so."
Facebook is now estimated to be worth some 50 billion dollars and the shares that the twins received in the 2008 settlement are now estimated to be worth some 160 million dollars.
Facebook: One case closes, another opens
A day after winning a court ruling over charges that he copied the idea for Facebook from his fellow Harvard students, Mark Zuckerberg faced a new challenge Tuesday from an investor who claimed ownership of half the company.
