An appellate court in New York has decided not to hear any further arguments about why Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss should not have to pay $13 million to a law firm that helped them draft a settlement agreement with Facebook. The Winklevoss twins sued Facebook several years ago and eventually agreed to a $65 million settlement.
A few days ago, I wrote about how former Harvard University president called the Winklevoss twins a**holes while on stage at a conference hosted by Fortune. In a politically correct response, the Winklevoss twins responded by saying “We now further understand why our meeting was less than productive; someone who does not value ethics with respect to his own conduct, would likely have little interest in this subject as it related to the conduct of others. Perhaps there is a “variability of aptitude” for decency and professionalism among university faculty.” That statement was made in a letter to current Harvard University president Drew Faust.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss’ request for rehearing their high-profile lawsuit against Facebook and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Howard Rice, the lawyer for the twins, said that they intend to petition the lawsuit to the U.S. Supreme Court. Rice, the Winklevoss twins, and Divya Narenda want to invalidate a previous multi-million settlement due to suspicion for not receiving the true valuation of the social networking company at the time of the settlement. Below is a press release about the lawsuit:
When I first wrote about Wayne Chang in December 2009, he was in the process of suing the Winklevoss twins. The Winklevoss twins was initially given a $65 million settlement with Facebook and Chang believes he is entitled to a cut of that. Chang argues that his former company i2hub Organization was blocked from receiving money from the 2008 settlement Facebook made with the Winklevoss twins.
Earlier this week a panel of Federal Appeals made a ruling that Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss had to accept a ruling from 2008 that they must accept a $65 million settlement with Facebook. Based on the stock that the Winklevoss twins would be given, the $65 million in stock from back then is now worth over $100 million.
In today’s issue of The Daily, there was an interview with the Winklevoss brothers. The Winklevoss brothers are currently pursuing a lawsuit against Facebook. The brothers had almost settled the lawsuit for $65 million in cash and stock in the company. In the interview, one of the brothers said that Mark Zuckerberg is the type of person that could “shake your hand and say and act and verbalize like you know… he’s behaving a good faith… and then do the exact opposite.”
Yesterday Winklevoss twins Tyler and Cameron almost considered a decision to stop pursuing a reviewed lawsuit against Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook settled with the Winklevoss twins for $20 million in cash and $45 million in Facebook stock. But the twins want more… They want over $140 million from Zuckerberg and Facebook.
The twins prepared a statement earlier this week about how they still feel cheated by Zuckerberg. The settlement should have a far larger value than what was originally decided. The twins still believe that Zuckerberg did not come up with the idea for Facebook. The twins will be pursuing the case on January 11th in front of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco.
This isn’t the only court case that the Winklevoss’ are involved in. Wayne Chang claims to have ownership in ConnectU, meaning he wants some of the settlement money. “The principle is that they didn’t fight fair,” stated Tyler Winklevoss in an interview. “The principle is that Mark stole the idea.”
The Winklevoss brothers are suing Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg again. They were not happy with the $65 million settlement from before. They believe that Facebook was actually worth much higher at the time when the settlement agreement was made. In an ironic twist, Wayne Chang is suing the Winklevoss twins for the same reason they are suing Facebook.