
Man Sued Winklevoss Twins in 2009, Saying They Stole Company Stake From Him - aepstein
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40593836/ns/business-us_business/
======
grellas
This suit was filed in December _2009_ and I'm not sure why it is being
reported now as if it were a new filing.

The procedural context is intriguing, though. Among other things, when the
court fights first started, Facebook sued ConnectU, the Winklevoss brothers,
_and_ Mr. Chang for what is known as declaratory relief. This is a special
court remedy by which a party can anticipate that another party will sue for
relief and beat that party to the punch by suing first. The point of the
preemptive suit is to file in a favorable venue and ask the court to consider
and resolve the conflicting claims to the subject matter in dispute (here, the
rights to FB's assets). Thus, Facebook sued all these parties in order to get
a declaration (and judgment) from the court that neither ConnectU nor any
other party had any rights to the FB assets but that, instead, Mr. Zuckerberg
and FB owned all such assets free and clear of any of their claims. This
included asking for such a declaration against Mr. Chang as well.

According to the allegations in Mr. Chang's suit, the Winklevoss brothers
retained counsel to defend the declaratory relief action and also paid for
such attorneys to represent Mr. Chang as well. Mr. Chang then alleges that his
own attorneys sold him out in favor of the Winklevoss brothers by failing to
advise him properly concerning the settlement that was ultimately reached in
the case by which the brothers received a huge payout and he got nothing (he
claims that he and the brothers had formed an entity into which the assets of
ConnectU, including the FB-related rights, were transferred and that he
therefore owned up to half those assets and should have received up to half
the settlement proceeds as a result of this).

So you have claims that the Winklevoss brothers stole what belonged to Mr.
Chang, that Mr. Zuckerberg then stole what belonged to the brothers and Mr.
Chang either separately or jointly, and that the attorneys representing the
brothers and Mr. Chang connived with the brothers to stick the knife into Mr.
Chang while extorting a massive payout from FB. And, to cap it off, the
brothers and ConnectU have moved to set aside this settlement because they
claim the Mr. Zuckerberg misled them about the value of the FB stock when he
did the settlement.

Definitely one for the books.

~~~
ttol
Very thorough research. -Wayne Chang

~~~
ttol
Why am I getting downvoted?

~~~
fizx
I think people don't realize you're actually claiming to be Wayne Chang. They
perceive your statement as a bad attempt at humor (there's a similar reddit
meme).

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aepstein
The actual court docs, if you're in to that kind of thing:
[http://www.businessinsider.com/irony-alert-man-sues-
winklevo...](http://www.businessinsider.com/irony-alert-man-sues-winklevoss-
twins-says-they-stole-company-stake-from-him-2010-12#chang-is-also-suing-the-
winklevoss-twins-business-partner-divya-narendra-and-their-father-howard-
winklevoss-1)

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rayval
Per the comments in the link, this story is almost one year old, and was first
covered by Caroline McCarthy of CNET

<http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10424028-36.html>

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alanh
Summary: The man (Chang) said ConnectU (the Winklevoss venture) joined with
his company and the litigation was an asset, but he received none of the
settlement.

An interesting argument. IANAL but it sounds like a compelling case.

------
ajaimk
Hmmm the wonderful sound of irony.

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candre717
If Wayne was a programmer - a good one at that -, why did the twins hire
Zuckerberg

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arrty
Why did he wait this long?

~~~
MichaelApproved
Filing a lawsuit isn't always the first action, typically it's the last
resort. There could have been negotiations and other attempts to come to a
settlement before finally suing in court.

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lotusleaf1987
Awesome, this has to be karma.

------
AndrewMoffat
_cues Yakety Sax_

