Of missing contracts, and multi million dollar repercussions

Contracts, no matter how dodgy or pointless they seem should always be scrutinized before signed, as an 18-year old Mark Zuckerberg (now 26-years old) can attest to. According to this report on CNN Money, Mark apparently signed a contract during his freshman years at Harvard with a certain Paul Ceglia, offering him an ownership stake in a project that he (Mark) was working on at the time for the meager sum of US$2000.

That project was called The Face Book, an early incarnation of today's mega social networking site Facebook, and today Paul Ceglia is looking to inherit 50% of ownership rights to it because of this seemingly forgotten seven-year old contract. However, it seems that the integral piece of the case - the original copy of the contract itself - has yet to be submitted to court. 

If you can still remember, in 2007 Microsoft valued Facebook at a whopping US$15 billion, which means that poor ol' Mark must probably be crapping his pants right now. As for Mr Ceglia, he must feel that his US$2000 was very, very well spent - that is, if he can actually find the contract in question and present it to the judge.