Now, dubious man claims stake in Facebook

A man with a shady past has used old emails and a powerful law firm to press his claim to half of the social networking firm Facebook.

A legal claim filed last year by Paul Ceglia is being re-evaluated after lawyers at DLA Piper amended the complaint to include emails that appear to back the New York State man's position.

Ceglia contended that he hired then Harvard University student Mark Zuckerberg in 2003 to do software coding for a StreetFax website and wound up providing seed money for what Zuckerberg than called "the face book."

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, evidence presented by Ceglia, whose background includes criminal charges for fraud and a conviction for possession of hallucinogenic mushrooms, included a signed contract and email exchanges.

Ceglia claims he provided Zuckerberg with $2,000 in exchange for half of what is now Facebook, which boasts more than 600 million members and was recently valued at $50 billion.

Zuckerberg reportedly did work on StreetFax for Ceglia, but Facebook wasn't part of the deal.