July 14, 2010 (Pen Men at Work): The most popular social networking site, Facebook, is in dire straits. Paul D. Ceglia has filed a lawsuit in New York claiming a stake in the website’s profits. He is claiming an ownership by stating that he has a total of 84% stake in Facebook.

Ceglia has cited that he had signed a deal with Mark Zuckerberg, the owner of Facebook, back in 2003. He also claims to have designed and developed the entire website in exchange for $1000 and a 50% claim in the company.

It was all well so far but a tenuous clause within the contract states that Ceglia can actually keep on earning an additional 1% of the company per day until the website was fully completed. The clause is said to have taken effect from 2004.

The actual time taken by Facebook to be completed and successfully launched has to be taken into consideration, states Ceglia. This gives him an additional 34% over and above the 50% already agreed to. The argument went in his favor last month when he won an injunction which resulted in Facebook assets being frozen.

The CEO of Facebook has dismissed the case as utterly frivolous and has requested for a transfer to the federal court of Buffalo, New York. The spokesman for the company stated that the case would be fought strongly and the claim is likely to be dismissed. However, the company spokesman refrained from mentioning whether Paul D. Ceglia had any relationship with the company at all.

Ceglia was not available for comment but Facebook is expected to deal with the matter quickly, if market reports are to be believed.

Paul D. Ceglia is currently facing charges of defraud as he has been accused of cheating the customers of his previous wood pellet fuel company. The case remains pending in court.

Facebook is not without blemish either. It was at the receiving end of a privacy violation controversy in Germany while Zuckerberg himself had been accused of a security fraud by his former colleagues in Harvard.