Fugitive who tried to defraud Zuckerberg out of half of Facebook captured in Ecuador

The New York man who was charged with trying to defraud Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg was captured Thursday in Ecuador after nearly 3½ years as a fugitive.

Paul Ceglia, 45, went missing from upstate New York in March 2015 after he removed his electronic monitoring ankle bracelet – taking off with his wife, two children and the family dog.

Prosecutors on Thursday notified U.S. District Judge Vernon Broderick that Ceglia had been located and arrested in Quito, Ecuador’s capital. He is set to appear in court within 24 hours.

Prosecutors said they would update the presiding judge on the status of extradition attempts.

Ceglia, a former wood pellet salesman with a checkered business past, fled the country just two months before he was scheduled to go to trial in Manhattan federal court for cooking up a scheme to defraud Zuckerberg out of half of his stake in the company.

He filed a suit in 2010 alleging that while Zuckerberg was studying at Harvard, the tech billionaire signed a contract giving Ceglia partial ownership of the website that later became Facebook. He also claimed he gave Zuckerberg $1,000 in startup money as part of the software development deal.

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Facebook lawyers confirmed that there was indeed a contract between Zuckerberg and Ceglia but insisted the social networking website was not a part of the deal.

A Buffalo, New York, judge tossed out Ceglia’s lawsuit in 2014.

Prior to vanishing, Ceglia maintained his innocence. He faces mail and wire fraud charges that would carry a potential maximum sentence of 40 years in prison.

Ceglia’s lawyer, Robert Ross Fogg, was surprised his client had been located but said that he looks “forward to his return and resuming our vigorous defense of his case."

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