More bad news for Facebook scammer Paul Ceglia. Shortly after the judge ordered him to reimburse Facebook almost $76,000 for legal fees in the false contract scam, an updated court filing shows new evidence that he knowingly fabricated the case against the social media giant and founder Mark Zuckerberg.
Work completed by digital forensic teams in relation to the case shows a number of email accounts created for the purpose of fabricating the case and shopping around for representation in the lawsuit. Documents of interest include different legal proposals from prospective lawyers and emails discussing details of the scam. Furthermore, Facebook lawyers compel the court, in the new filings, to grant subpoenas allowing the company to examine the accounts for further evidence.
There is no mention of whether Facebook is seeking further compensation for the aggravation of the case beyond the reimbursement or if they are seeking legal satisfaction from a criminal fraud case. Either way, there should be some repercussions for Ceglia beyond a monetary value. A lot of big companies get sued by people claiming they are owed something, and I believe many are probably false, but corporations would rather settle out of court to avoid bad publicity.
It seems like Ceglia was just hoping for a quick settlement. I think it’s justified that he has to reimburse them for their legal fees, but I think criminal charges should be filed if the evidence suggests that he masterminded the whole thing as part of a malicious scam or get-rich-quick scheme.