Biglaw, Email Scandals, Facebook

What's Next for Paul Ceglia's Facebook Suit? Secret Email Addresses and a Possible Winklevoss Connection

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Paul Ceglia‘s war with Facebook is the ridiculous lawsuit gift that just keeps on giving.

We have covered the inveterate scam artist’s losing court battle for an ownership stake in Facebook time and time again. We can’t help it, because the stuff still being disclosed continues to be so absurd.

Last time we mentioned the case, the court had ordered Ceglia to pay Facebook’s legal bills to the tune of $75,776. But we ain’t done yet.

Yesterday, Facebook lawyers from Gibson Dunn and Harris Beach filed another motion to compel. This time they are seeking information about Ceglia’s suspiciously named secret email addresses, as well as a possible connection to the Biglaw firm that used to represent Mark Zuckerberg’s other arch nemeses — the Winklevoss twins….

Several months ago, Facebook’s attorneys got a court order to look through every email account Ceglia had used since 2003. Apparently he didn’t follow directions. Attorneys later unearthed some e-mail addresses that don’t exactly indicate honesty: getzuck@gmail.com.

Facebook’s attorneys have not yet seen the contents of the email address, but something tells me Ceglia wasn’t using it as his junk mail address. From the motion to compel:

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As discussed below, a recent production of electronic material… establishes that Ceglia has been concealing from the Court and Defendants at least four such webmail accounts, one of which — an account named getzuck@gmail.com — he appears to have created for use in connection with this lawsuit. These cannot possibly be inadvertent oversights.

Yeah, that is not kosher.

And that’s not all. Ceglia has tried to assert privilege over emails with attorneys not even involved in the case. One of those attorneys is Jim Kole, who was an assistant attorney general at the Illinois Attorney General’s Office (Consumer Fraud Bureau) at the time that Ceglia contacted him — in other words, Kole wasn’t even a private-practice lawyer.

The other, possibly more interesting communication involves Quinn Emanuel. From the motion (citations omitted):

Ceglia claimed privilege over six emails sent to David Grable, an attorney at Quinn Emanuel who is not known to have provided legal services to Ceglia in connection with this matter.

Rather, Grable appears to be a personal relation of Jim Grable, Ceglia’s former attorney at Connors & Vilardo, who sent three of the six emails, including the earliest one.

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Now, this may be nothing; remember, this is a defense motion to compel, not a court ruling. But it is interesting that Ceglia was communicating with the firm that helped Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss score a $65 million UConnect settlement with Facebook. (The twins later had a falling out with the firm, unsuccessfully litigating against Quinn.)

Ceglia’s communication feels more suspect because of the fact that for whatever reason, he doesn’t want Facebook to see the discussion.

At this point, in my opinion, it’s safe to assume the entire lawsuit was in bad faith. It’s just interesting to see how deep Ceglia’s rabbit hole of deception will continue to go.

Defendants’ Memorandum of Law in Support of Their Fifth Motion To Compel [Ceglia v. Zuckerberg]

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