Web Designer Claims to Own 84% of Facebook
A New York man has filed a lawsuit against Facebook claiming he owns a majority stake in the social networking Website.
Does the name Paul D. Cegli mean anything to you? It should, considering he supposedly holds an 84 percent stake in Facebook, a company that recorded revenues of $800 million last year and Forbes reports is worth $6.5 billion.
Mr. Cegli filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court of New York's Allegany County on June 30, claiming that a contract he signed seven years ago with Facebook's founder and Chief Executive Officer, Mark Zuckerberg, entitles him to ownership of the company and a substantial amount of money in damages.
Cegli's story is that in 2003, he entered into a contract with Mark Zuckerberg, promising to design the Facebook CEO a website. The contract stipulated that Cegli would design the site and pay Zuckerberg $1,000, and in return, he would receive a 50 percent stake in the company. CNet reports that the contract also states that Cegli would receive an additional 1 percent stake every day until the website was completed. All told, the suit alleges Cegli owns all but 16 percent of the social network.
The contract, seen by the Wall Street Journal and apparently signed on April 28, 2003, says it is 'for the purchase and a design of a suitable website for the project Seller [Mr. Zuckerberg] has already initiated that is designed to offer students of Harvard university [sic] access to a wesite [sic] similar to a live functioning yearbook with the working title of 'The Facebook.'"
WSJ reports that the date of the contract seems to conflict with previous accounts detailing the creation of Facebook. Although Mark Zuckerberg built and launched a predecessor to Facebook called Facemash in October and November of 2003, he didn't register the domain thefacebook.com until January of 2004.
Sources: Wall Street Journal | CNet
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Surely this won't go through. America is insane with its litigation.
Interesting...
It's possible he has a legitamate claim, but in this day and age there's higher chance than not that he simply did some coding work and got creative with a contract.
I for one think it would be kind of funny if this guy actually ended up owning 84% of Facebook...
And he hasn't filed a claim until now? I find that rather fishy...
I suppose this put a spanner in the works for the facebook movie...
yeah, yeah... Why not own THG BTW?
I would just laugh so hard if he somehow won this lawsuit. He has my support, that's for sure
More importantly, New York has a 6-year limit on such claims, not 7. Whoops...
Also, google this guy. He was sued by the NY Attorney General for deceptive business practices a while back.
Not the best character reference when trying to litigate.
"access to a wesite" wait what is a wesite?
I sick of Zuckerberg and his behaviour so I hope that guy wins ,although very unlikely.
why would someone give 1 percent of the company for every day it takes to finish a job? what was the incentive for cegli to work quickly? If he was smart, then he would have dragged it out to 50 days and become 100% owner.
no one would give away the majority share of their company for $1000 and a web site design.
Nice troll.
Nothing here, let's move on!
The inventors of HTML invented ALL of it...
lmfao if i was mark, i'd sell all the assets and close down facebook.
in your face weird guy!
If this is true, this guy is about to get freaking rich. haha
Mark can't sell anything. Ceglia was granted a restraining order preventing the selling or reassigning of any Facebook assets, stocks, bonds that are possessed or owned by Mark until after the court date.
He didn't think to do this until NOW?
...And I own 70% of Microsoft...
This guy is a hack. If he was owed something through a legitimate contract, he would have gone after his money/capital years ago. It's worth investigating if it's true buy I highly doubt he's going to get anything out of it.
"access to a wesite" wait what is a wesite?
You haven't heard? It's the next big thing, the Facebook Killer.
Zuckerberg will hire insane lawyers and they will oen this guy...shouldn't really be worried
Zuckerberg will hire insane lawyers and they will oen this guy...shouldn't really be worried
Im not worried. Because I dont use facebook.
I agree with others questioning why he waited so long before starting litigation. The only reason I can think of, is that he thought if he waited long enough, the website would be worth something. I honestly don't care whether the contract is true or not. I hope this guy fails on the sheer principle that he trolled until he could get something monetary out of his claim. It's this kind of BS that makes me hate the American Law and Court system. It's all about greed here.
If it turns out to be true, I think we'll have a nice sequel to "The Social Network", which is not even out yet!
If he didn't write and deliver code used by Facebook then he has no claim. If Facebook was created using code he actually wrote then there may be a claim.
He still should have acted on that claim a long time ago.
For the people who says he should of acted on the claim years ago:
Maybe he didn't think facebook would become successful.
I honestly don't care who owns facebook only thing I use it for is because my guild on world of warcraft has a page that's never updated.
And I'm the Queen of England.
How long he waited does not matter. So long as he is within the statute of limitations, it is irrelevant. You are allowed by law to wait as along as you legally want. That is why there are statues of limitation.
As for the contract, it appears enforceable. It may not be "fair" but here in America we have something called freedom to contract. The law does not protect people against their own stupidity.
The real question is: once facebook shuts down where are the stalkers, child molesters, and other sickos going to congregate?
"dumb f@$%s"
Dude... he's gonna get Zuckerpunched.
Thanks for u r information
its very useful