Judge claims Facebook equity man faces fraud charges

Sina Science and technology news Beijing time March 8 morning, the United States District Court Judge Andrew Carter (Andrew Carter) in Friday, the attempt to request a billions of dollar Facebook stake in New York businessman Paul Seglia (Paul Ceglia) must face criminal fraud charges. Seglia, 40, was charged with forging a 2003-year contract to claim a large stake in Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Zuckerberg. After an hour of hearings, Judge Carter dismissed Seglia's request to veto the charges, and said he was unable to satisfy the request to dismiss the criminal proceedings. Seglia, who sued Zuckerberg and Facebook in a federal court in New York State Buffalo in 2010, said he had signed an agreement with Zuckerberg, a freshman in college, to invest $1000 in Facebook, which is not yet online. Zuckerberg used to work on programming for Seglia's streetfax.com company, and Facebook said the only contract they signed was StreetFax.com, accusing Seglia of forging documents in the lawsuit. Last year, a magistrate in Buffalo proposed to dismiss Seglia's lawsuit because of evidence that the contract was deliberately forged. The federal judge presiding over the case has not yet made a final decision on the proposal. New York State prosecutors sued Seglia in 2012, accusing him of falsifying documents in Buffalo's proceedings. Seglia subsequently filed a lawsuit against Manhattan prosecutor Pritt Balara in New York (Preet Bharara) and the US Attorney General Eric (Eric Holder) in hopes of dismissing criminal charges. In Friday, David Patton, Seglia's defense lawyer, David Patton that the court should prohibit the government from initiating criminal charges against Seglia in civil proceedings, which could dampen the prosecution's enthusiasm. He also said that according to the U.S. government's allegations, Seglia's conduct does not constitute criminal fraud. "Their accusation is that it is a false lawsuit, not a fraud." "he said. But Judge Carter said the prosecution's allegations were well documented and justified, so they could move on. But he also said he would consider the plea of Patrick if the case were to go to trial. Seglia said at the end of the hearing that he would prove that the contract with Zuckerberg was legal and valid. "Nothing can stop me. "he said. Seglia's lawsuit has had a negative impact on Facebook's May 2013 IPO, the initial public offering. Facebook's founding process has been questioned before, as evidenced by the Oscar-winning film Social network. (PEI)