Facebook Partnership Is Proven by $3,000 Check, Lawyer Says

The purported canceled check is made out to Zuckerberg and dated three days before Paul Ceglia claims the two men signed a contract in 2003. That agreement, Ceglia said in court papers, entitles him to control of the world’s biggest social networking website.

A copy of the check was turned over last week to Ceglia’s side by a Wellsville, New York, branch of Community Bank N.A., according to Terrence Connors, a lawyer for Ceglia. The Wellsville Daily Reporter published a copy on its website.

The check is the first independently produced evidence to be made public of Ceglia’s claimed contractual relationship with Zuckerberg. Connors said the copy of the check is among bank records his side has obtained as evidence in the case, now pending in federal court in Buffalo, New York.

Ceglia, 37, said in his June 30 lawsuit that he and Zuckerberg signed a “work for hire” contract in 2003, when the Facebook CEO was an 18-year-old Harvard University freshman. The agreement called for Zuckerberg to do computer coding work and provided for a $1,000 investment by Ceglia in a project called “The Face Book,” in exchange for a 50 percent stake, Ceglia claimed.

A clause in the contract gave Ceglia an additional 34 percent for delays in the launching of the site, he claimed in court papers.