Facebook 'Unsure' if Zuck Sold Site Years Ago

Case appears before judge for the first time
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 21, 2010 10:05 AM CDT
Facebook 'Unsure' if Zuck Sold Site Years Ago
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg talks about the social network site's new privacy settings, Wednesday, May 26, 2010, in Palo Alto, Calif.   (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

A lawyer for Facebook says she’s “unsure” whether a freshman Mark Zuckerberg signed away the rights to the site for $1,000. New York investor Paul Ceglia produced a contract in court yesterday that he said Zuckerberg had signed back in 2003, giving Ceglia a growing stake in a site called “The Face Book.” Facebook hasn’t called the contract a phony, but lawyer Lisa Simpson (really) said the company had “serious questions” about it, Bloomberg reports.

“Whether he signed this piece of paper, we’re unsure at this moment,” Simpson told the judge. Ceglia sued Facebook on June 30, saying that thanks to the contract he was entitled to 84% of the company. He says Zuckerberg pitched him the “fledgling project” when Ceglia contracted him to code a different site. Ceglia’s lawyer declined to say why he’d waited nine years to follow the suit. (Maybe because it didn't have 500 million users in 2001, a milestone reached this morning.)

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