Mark Zuckerberg

The businessman claims the social network’s CEO built it for him, and has now presented to a court of law emails that allegedly prove it. from the letters it seems Zuckerberg received payment from Celia for building the site and worked behind his back to take over it. Facebook: this is forgery.

“Business Insider” reports about a surprising development in Paul Celia’s suit against Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook: the businessmen that claims the social network belongs to him, presented to the court emails from 2003-2004. The letters show that Facebook’s CEO did indeed create it for Celia for payment and later claimed the project has no future, while moving to California to establish the social network.

Facebook responded by saying that the company is convinced the emails are fake. The new legal team for Celia, DLA Piper, that mainly represents technology companies said to “Business Insider” that it held a lengthy examination before it agreed to accept Celia as a client and that it is convinced the emails are authentic.

From the correspondence, if it is authentic,  a very negative picture of Zuckerberg appears. The emails show that Celia and Zuckerberg signed an agreement in July 2003 to build a site Celia called StreetFax and Zuckerberg Face Book  or The Face Book. The agreement lasted until 2004.

In his letters, Zuckerberg confirms that he received payment from Celia to create the site and the two are discussing the marketing options in detail. At a certain point Celia even suggested selling t-shirts and other products of the site whereas Zuckerberg rejects the idea of “selling college junk” through Facebook. 

Zuckerberg did not meet the schedule the two agreed upon, which included raising the site by the beginning of January 2004, and was scolded several times by Celia. At a certain point the businessman threatened to involve Zuckerberg’s parents in the dispute. Facebook’s CEO protested this threat and the fact that according to the contract he loses 1% of his holdings in the site for every day the work is not complete. Zuckerberg demanded to keep a 50% part in the site and Celia accepted this demand.

During their discussion, Zuckerberg mentions a few Harvard students that are working on a similar project and want his help and he tells Celia he’s doing his best to delay them. Apparently these are the Winklevoss brothers, whose claim was rejected yesterday to increase the compensation they received from Zuckerberg and Facebook by $65 million. Information revealed in the past does prove Zuckerberg knowingly deceived them.

In February 2004, Zuckerberg launched the first version of Facebook. A couple of months later he sent an email to Celia claiming the site is successful and he is considering closing it – at the same time the site reached impressive accomplishments. Three months later, in July, Zuckerberg offers to return the $2,000 Celia invested in the site while mentioning he is now working from California.

From the reports Zuckerberg omitted the fact that he was in the process of registering a company called Facebook that uses the product he created for Celia and that the funding came from venture capitalists. A week after sending the email to Celia, Zuckerberg registered the company, without mentioning it to him. The suit states that Zuckerberg never returned the $2,000 he promised to return.

“Business Insider” estimates that according to past behavior by Zuckerberg, the emails are authentic. The only question that remains, that Celia wasn’t able to answer, is why he waited so long to file is suit. Facebook is expected to be issued in April 2012.