Tag: Mark Zuckerberg

Well, folks, our national nightmare may be over.

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, aka The Winkelvii, have decided to take the money and run. “After careful consideration,” they said in a filing yesterday, “they have determined that they will not file a petition” with the Supreme Court.

And so the super-wealthy will now stop pestering the super-wealthy in order to try and become more super-wealthy. Sounds good.

This news comes as a little bit of a surprise, as the Winklevii had proven up until now that they were willing to take their case in front of anyone that would listen. Back in January of this year, they officially revived the lawsuit against Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg. They claimed that the settlement that was agreed upon previously ($20 million in cash and $45 million in stock) was not good enough. They said that the settlement was invalid because Zuckerberg had failed to disclose higher valuations of his company.

They took their case to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, who decided that the original settlement must be upheld. The chief justice in the case said at the time that “at some point, litigation must come to an end; the point has now been reached.” We thought that was the end.

But oh how naive we were to the Winklevii resolve! Unsatisfied with the Court of Appeals’ ruling, they demanded that the same court rehear their plea, this time with the full court present instead of the three-judge panel used to make the first ruling.

And the court again rejected their request.

At that point, the Winklevii announced that they would be filing a petition of certiorari with the highest court in the land. And we all began to speculate with abject horror whether or not the Supreme Court would choose to hear the case.

But it looks like we may never get to see the beautiful bronzed Olympians in front of the court. Facebook’s Andrew Noyes had this to say about the Winklevii’s decision:

“We’ve considered this case closed for a long time, and we’re pleased to see the other party now agrees.”

He also retweeted this –

Unfortunately, the Winklevii have yet to tweet about their decision. It’s a shame, as everyone around here thoroughly enjoyed their excellent use of the hashtag.

It looks like Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss plan to take their case to the highest power in the land. In a press release, the Winklevii announced that they plan to file a Petition for Certiorari with the United States Supreme Court.

It might be worth it to take a brief look at how the famous twins got to this point – submitting a writ to the top court in the country.

Zombie litigators Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss decided in January of this year that their agreed-upon settlement of $65 million dollars with Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook was inadequate. The settlement, consisting of $20 million in cash and $45 in stock, was awarded to the twins based on their claim that Zuckerberg stole the idea of Facebook from them while they were all students at Harvard University. I know, I know – you’ve seen the movie.

So the Winklevii say that the $65 million settlement was based on fraudulent valuations of Facebook’s value, and that the settlement should be much more. They asked the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Fransisco to release them from the settlement so that they could attempt to extract more from Zuckerberg.

In April, that appeals court reached the decision that the Winklevii must honor the agreement and cannot pursue the matter further. The judge in the case said in his statement that “at some point, litigation must come to an end.” Upon hearing this news, the Winklevii decided to take their $65 million and be happy pursue further litigation.

Just a week later, the Winklevii asked the same Federal Appeals Court to rehear their claim. Apparently, the first decision was made by a panel of only 3 judges. The Winklevii requested that their case be heard by the entire 11 judge panel.

After that request, Tyler Winklevoss created some interesting hashtags on Twitter and a Taiwanese animation company blew the twins out of their canoe with canon fire from Zuckerberg’s warship.

Yesterday afternoon, the court of appeals rejected their request to rehear the case with a full panel.

Well, today it seems as though the Winklevii are going to attempt to take their case to the last appeals court they have left – the Supreme Court. They say they will file a Petition of Certiorari, which is basically a request for the Supreme Court to review a lower court’s judgment.

From the statement:

The first is the Court’s holding that a party who is defrauded into entering into a settlement agreement cannot challenge the contract on the ground of fraud. Federal and state courts have long held that a settlement founded on fraud must be set aside. The Court’s decision conflicts with that body of precedent.

The second issue is the Court’s holding that a routine agreement to hold statements made in a mediation confidential bars proof that Facebook committed securities fraud in the mediation. Numerous federal precedents, and the text of the 1934 Securities Exchange Act, hold that an agreement to directly or indirectly waive rights under federal antifraud provisions of the securities laws is void. The Panel’s decision conflicts with that body of precedent.”

Of course the Supreme Court doesn’t have to reopen the case as they have autonomy regarding what cases they choose to hear. But I have a feeling that this Winklevoss thing isn’t quite over. And like a member of the undead that still retains part of its melon, the Winklevii are not at the end of the road. They’ve got one more try. And I know we are all hoping that they can finally get their (430th) day in court.

[Image: Shaun of the Dead]