‘Noose tightening’ on claimant in Facebook case, says lawyer

A JUDGE has given Facebook access to the personal email accounts of a man suing for half ownership of the social networking website and ordered him to explain why he can’t produce documents its lawyers believe are evidence.

Proof that Paul Ceglia’s case is a fraud has been sitting on a Chicago law firm’s email server since 2004, Facebook lawyer Orin Snyder told the federal judge in New York on Wednesday.

An email that Ceglia sent to a former business associate at the firm includes a scanned version of the two-page contract he and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg signed, Snyder said. Unlike the one Ceglia filed, it doesn’t mention Facebook, only a street- mapping database Ceglia had hired Zuckerberg to work on, he said.