New York District Judge dismisses Ceglia's lawsuit claiming 'half ownership' of Facebook

The lawsuit filed by Paul D. Ceglia, claiming half ownership of Facebook, has reportedly been dismissed by a District Judge in New York.

Ceglia had claimed in a lawsuit in 2010 that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who was providing programming and coding services for a search project called StreetFax that time, had signed a Work for Hire document in 2003, in which he agreed, in return for monetary payments, to give Ceglia a half interest in Facebook.

According to PC World, however, Zuckerberg had stated under oath that he had not signed the Work for Hire document but only signed an agreement to do website development work for StreetFax, a now defunct company.

District Judge Richard J. Arcara granted the motion to dismiss Ceglia's petition as both Facebook and Zukerberg had alleged that the Work for Hire document was a 'recently created fabrication', while the StreetFax document was the authentic contract.

The office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York had said in October 2012 that federal agents arrested Ceglia for allegedly attempting to defraud Facebook and Zuckerberg of a stake in the company, by allegedly doctoring, fabricating and destroying evidence to support his false claim, the report added.