Ecuador has released a New York man and turned down an extradition request from the United States, where he was arrested after falsely claiming he was owed half-ownership of Facebook.

A lawyer for Paul Ceglia on Tuesday tweeted a judge's order that the American be released and confirming that his extradition to the U.S. had been denied.

In an apparent criticism of the United States, Ecuadorian President Lenín Moreno referred in a recently released letter to cases when the U.S. didn't heed Ecuador's own requests for the extradition of citizens who allegedly committed crimes.

Ceglia had claimed he gave Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg $1,000 in startup money. He was arrested on fraud charges in the United States in 2012, but later fled to Ecuador. He was arrested there last year.