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Ceglia v. Zuckerberg returns, with a bang - biglaw representation, lots of email

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Re: Ceglia v. Zuckerberg returns, with a bang - biglaw representation, lots of email

#3

Post by joeguilmette »

The emails are pretty remarkable. I never really trusted the Winkelvoss twins, but these direct emails are pretty damning and seem to corroborate the twins' story. Looks like no matter what happens Ceglia is going to be a very rich man.

Re: Ceglia v. Zuckerberg returns, with a bang - biglaw representation, lots of email

#4

Post by anigbrowl »

tl;dr Remember Paul Ceglia, the guy who popped up last year with a lawsuit claiming he had given Mark Zuckerberg $1000 for 50% of Facebook back in 2003, and had a contract to prove it? Not many people were convinced, and the story sort of fell off the radar, even though parts of his case seemed persuasive.

Well, now that the Winkelvii* have had their claims rejected, Ceglia is back...and represented by DLA Piper, one of the largest and most solid law firms in the US. His amended complaint, filed yesterday, contains a large number of emails purported to be discussions between himself and Mark Zuckerberg about ownership of Z.'s stake in Facebook. Besides the (abundant) entertainment value, it seems this suit just might have legs after all. Back to the typewriter, Aaron Sorkin - looks like we might have a franchise here!

* I just love saying that.

Re: Ceglia v. Zuckerberg returns, with a bang - biglaw representation, lots of email

#6

Post by colinplamondon »

Even if he had 50% at the beginning, wouldn't he be in the exact same situation as Saverin?

Diluted to hell by subsequent rounds of investment, and ending up with .1-1%. That'd still be an ENORMOUS amount of money, but there's no way he has a claim on 50% of the currently issued shares.

Re: Ceglia v. Zuckerberg returns, with a bang - biglaw representation, lots of email

#7

Post by ChuckMcM »

Probably not going to land in the jurisdiction of the People's Court :-).

Now me? I'd say "Ok so $3B, we'll give one to the lawyers, one to the taxman, and the third one we'll just keep for ourselves. And we'll call it a day and put this nasty bit of business behind us."

But that's just me, a billion post-taxes and legal fees would pretty much cover any eventuality short of Armageddon :-). If the providence of the email chain can be validated well, I'm sure the DLA Piper's are thinking they are looking at a potential billion dollar payout so they may be willing to commit serious resources to insuring that level of rigor is done.

Re: Ceglia v. Zuckerberg returns, with a bang - biglaw representation, lots of email

#8

Post by anigbrowl »

jsdalton wrote: post #5

Journalists get paid to muck through legalese like this and translate it into something readable: http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-lawsuit-paul-ceglia-...

I have to admit to a bias against BI...Blodget's tone grates on me. Plus I actually like reading through legalese, rather than the abstracted version.

Re: Ceglia v. Zuckerberg returns, with a bang - biglaw representation, lots of email

#10

Post by afterburner »

bcn wrote: post #2

DLA Piper means some smart people are starting to believe Ceglia. How likely is it that folks like Kip Hall http://www.dlapiper.com/kip_hall and other partners at DLA would take a case like this as a pure troll?

Either that or the slim chance of payoff combined with huge payout made it worth pursuing. If nothing else it means some lawyers get to have their name attached to a litigation suit with Facebook's name on it. Even if they fail they can use it on their resumes. As can the company for seeming willing to tackle big challenges.

This is all devil's advocate stuff mind you.

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