Paul Ceglia, the 39-year-old western New York man who in 2010 sued Facebook and CEO Mark Zuckerberg for 84% of the company, has been indicted on federal charges of wire and mail fraud for allegedly faking evidence in the case. 
 
 Ceglia claimed in his original lawsuit that Zuckerberg promised him a huge stake in Facebook in return for coding work on Facebook performed in 2003. According to this week's indictment, however, Ceglia was indeed contracted to work on Facebook, but he created a falsified contract “in which Zuckerberg agreed to provide Ceglia with at least a 50 percent interest in Facebook." 
 
 Ceglia, who was arrested and first charged in a criminal complaint last month, is also accused of creating fake e-mails and destroying evidence in the case against him. His previous plea was not guilty. 
 
 Each charge against Ceglia could put him behind bars for up to 20 years. He's scheduled to appear in Manhattan federal court on Wednesday, Nov. 28. 
 
 Facebook declined to comment on Ceglia's indictment, but a Facebook spokesman told Mashable of Ceglia's case against the company and its CEO in April that "this is a fraudulent lawsuit brought by a convicted felon, and we look forward to defending it in court. From the outset, we’ve said that this scam artist’s claims are ridiculous, and this newest complaint is no better." 
 
 A later court filing by Facebook's legal team called Ceglia's lawsuit a "brazen and outrageous fraud on the court." It also labeled Ceglia an "inveterate scam artist." 
 
 Photo Credit Bloomberg/Contributor/Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images ||||| The latest in a string of lawyers who have represented a man in a multibillion lawsuit against Facebook is expected to ask a federal judge Tuesday for permission to withdraw from the case. 
 
 Ohio attorney Dean Boland filed the request last month, a few days after his client, Paul Ceglia, was arrested on criminal charges accusing him of doctoring and destroying evidence to support his civil suit. 
 
 Ceglia has pleaded not guilty. 
 
 The request also comes as a motion by Facebook seeking to have Ceglia's lawsuit thrown out is pending. 
 
 Boland has not publicly said why he wants to withdraw, only that it has nothing to do with any belief that Ceglia engaged in fraud. He submitted his detailed reasons privately to the judge. 
 
 Attorneys for Menlo Park, California-based Facebook have asked the judge to make the reasons public, or at least disclose the reasons to them. Facebook won't oppose Boland's motion as long as it does not delay the case, the attorneys said in court filings. 
 
 At least a half dozen lawyers and firms have withdrawn as Ceglia's attorney before Boland. Their reasons have not been publicly disclosed. 
 
 Tuesday's hearing is expected to be conducted by telephone. Facebook's attorneys from the firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher are based in New York City, while Boland's office is in Lakewood, Ohio. Ceglia also is represented by attorney Paul Argentieri of Hornell. 
 
 Ceglia's 2010 lawsuit claims that he and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in 2003 signed a software development contract that included a provision entitling Ceglia to half-ownership of Facebook in exchange for $1,000 in startup money for Zuckerberg's then-fledgling idea. 
 
 Zuckerberg counters the document he signed had only to do with a street-mapping database called Streetfax that Ceglia had hired Zuckerberg, then a Harvard University student, to help develop. 
 
 Earlier this year, attorneys for Facebook and Zuckerberg filed a motion to have Ceglia's lawsuit dismissed, asserting that Ceglia had forged documents, fabricated emails and destroyed evidence. They also said he had waited too long _ six years _ to bring his claim and the statute of limitations had expired. ||||| A lawyer for Facebook Inc. said she was “unsure” whether company founder Mark Zuckerberg signed a contract that purportedly entitles a New York man to 84 percent of the world’s biggest social-networking service. 
 
 Paul Ceglia sued Facebook and Zuckerberg in state court June 30, claiming that an April 2003 contract entitles him to ownership of most of the closely held company. Ceglia’s lawyer produced a copy of the document for U.S. District Judge Richard Arcara today at a hearing in federal court in Buffalo, New York. 
 
 “Whether he signed this piece of paper, we’re unsure at this moment,” Facebook lawyer Lisa Simpson told Arcara. 
 
 Palo Alto, California-based Facebook, which hasn’t claimed the alleged contract with Ceglia is a phony, has “serious questions” about its authenticity, Simpson said. 
 
 The case is the latest challenge to the origins of Facebook, which is worth $24.6 billion, according to SharesPost.com, a marketplace for closely held firms. Facebook’s paternity was questioned in a suit by a group of Zuckerberg’s former Harvard University schoolmates, who claimed he used code developed on their ConnectU project to start Facebook. They settled in 2008. 
 
 Facebook Request 
 
 Today’s hearing was for Arcara to consider a request by Facebook to dissolve a temporary injunction, issued by a state court judge June 30, preventing the company from transferring assets. The parties resolved the issue by agreeing to let the injunction expire July 23. Arcara extended an order staying the injunction until then, which means it will have no effect. 
 
 The parties, appearing before Arcara for the first time in the case, also provided new details of their clients’ stories in response to questions from the judge. 
 
 “Mr. Zuckerberg did have a contract with Mr. Ceglia,” Simpson said. Zuckerberg, 26, worked for Ceglia as a computer coder, she said. 
 
 Facebook claims Ceglia remained silent for more than six years and his claim is probably too old to pursue. Also, Ceglia claims his alleged contract, which refers to “The Face Book,” was signed about nine months before Facebook was founded, the company said in court papers. 
 
 Today in court, Ceglia’s attorney, Terrence Connors, produced a copy of the two-page “work for hire” contract that his client said entitles him to control of the social-networking service. 
 
 StreetFax 
 
 Connors told the judge that Ceglia was a Web designer trying to develop a project called “StreetFax” in the spring of 2003. Ceglia’s plan was to put millions of photos of streets into a database and charge insurers money to access it. 
 
 “What he needed was a coder,” Connors told the judge. 
 
 Ceglia solicited bids to do the work. The lowest bidder was Zuckerberg, then a Harvard freshman. Zuckerberg said he would do the job for $1,000, Connors said. 
 
 “But I’ve got a project of my own,” Connors said Zuckerberg told his client. “I’m developing an online yearbook for Harvard kids now, but I’m thinking of expanding it.” 
 
 The contract was intended to cover the coding work on StreetFax and Ceglia’s investment in Zuckerberg’s “fledgling project,” Connors said. “Who knew then that it would turn into what it is today?” 
 
 In response to questions outside court, Connors declined to explain why it took Ceglia so long to file his legal claim. He also declined to say whether Ceglia had made any demand for money or for an ownership share from Facebook before suing. 
 
 The case is Ceglia v. Zuckerberg, 10-CV-00569, U.S. District Court, Western District of New York (Buffalo). 
 
 To contact the reporter on this story: Bob Van Voris in New York at rvanvoris@bloomberg.net.
– Facebook cried fraud last year over the guy claiming he was entitled to 84% of the company—and Facebook might have been right. Paul Ceglia, who sued the company and Mark Zuckerberg in 2010, has now been indicted on fraud charges for allegedly faking evidence, Mashable reports. Ceglia is accused of creating a false contract "in which Zuckerberg agreed to provide Ceglia with at least a 50% interest in Facebook" in return for coding work Ceglia did in 2003. Ceglia is also charged with creating fake emails and destroying evidence; each charge carries a potential prison sentence of up to 20 years. Facebook's appeal to have the lawsuit against the company tossed is pending, and the latest of Ceglia's attorneys is seeking the permission of a federal judge to withdraw from the case, reports AP.