Man in Facebook ownership case returns to Galway

THE Galway man who claims he owns half of Facebook is in his native county, despite claims by his family that he is not in Ireland.

Paul Ceglia, whose case for the part ownership of Facebook continues in the US this week, said that comments made by his uncle to a local newspaper in Galway that he was not here were “just a bit of craic” and that he “was taking the mick out of them”.

His uncle, Vincent Keaveney, told reporters that Ceglia was not in Ireland, but Ceglia has laughed off the comments.

He said that he has brought his family to Galway to see the fields and castles where he played as a child.

Ceglia’s lawsuit claiming ownership of Facebook includes a 2003 “work for hire” contract bearing the names of Ceglia and Zuckerberg, who studed at Harvard University student while developing the website, and emails Ceglia says the two exchanged in 2003 and 2004. He also has cancelled cheques to Zuckerberg.

Ceglia says he and Zuckerberg met and signed the agreement in the lobby of the Radisson Hotel in Boston on April 28, 2003, after Zuckerberg responded to his Craigslist help-wanted ad for work on a street-mapping database Ceglia was creating.

According to the lawsuit, Ceglia paid Zuckerberg $1,000 to work on the street-mapping project and gave him another $1,000 after Zuckerberg told him about his Facebook idea, with the condition that Ceglia would get half if it took off.

In emails earlier this week, Ceglia said he had to get out of the US because of pressure put on his family by the media and what he believes are investigators from Facebook.

Ceglia was born in Galway, where his father was a barber, in the 1980s. His mother, Cecelia Keaveney, came from Corofin. They moved to the US in the 1990s and Ceglia now lives in New York.

Meanwhile, US Judge Leslie Foschio in Buffalo, New York ruled on Friday that Ceglia’s lawyers improperly designated 120 documents, including versions of the contract Ceglia claims he signed with Zuckerberg in 2003, as confidential.

Foschio removed the confidential designation from 85 of the documents.