Facebook Inc. was awarded $75,776 in legal fees from a New York man who claims he’s entitled to half of Mark Zuckerberg’s multibillion-dollar stake in the social network.
In a decision Tuesday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Leslie G. Foschio in Buffalo, N.Y., ordered Paul Ceglia to pay the fees after ruling that he violated a pretrial discovery order and failed to turn over email account information.
The fee comes on top of an earlier $5,000 fine by the judge.
Last month, Foschio said Ceglia must reimburse Facebook for legal fees it incurred in trying to get him to comply with a court order in the partnership dispute. Ceglia protested against the “stratospheric” legal fees charged by Facebook’s lawyers.
In a long-running dispute, Facebook and Zuckerberg have denounced Ceglia's claims that he and Zuckerberg signed a 2003 contract that gives him an ownership stake in Facebook. The Menlo Park, Calif., tech giant this month filed for its IPO.
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