Paul Ceglia once hired Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to help build a website, and claims in a lawsuit that he funded Zuckerberg’s nascent social network — an investment he says entitles him to half of Facebook.

But Facebook says Ceglia’s proof — alleged e-mails between him and Zuckerberg and a contract — are fakes. The social networking giant, now valued at $80 billion, and widely expected to shoot for a $100 billion IPO in 2012, just won “expedited discovery” in the case. That means the company will get to see the alleged contract.

Ceglia’s case seems to be falling apart. His high-powered legal team from Manhattan law firm DLA Piper — along with attorneys from Buffalo-based firm Lippes Mathias Wexler Friedman — ditched him at the end of June, while Facebook filed hundreds of pages of testimony from private investigators and digital forensic experts that cast extreme doubts on the veracity of Ceglia’s claims.

And now comes a brutal Ceglia profile from the Buffalo News‘ Sunday paper, filled with damning quotes about Ceglia and his history in the small town of Wellsville, where he grew up and still lives.

You’ll need to read the whole thing, but here’s a small taste.

Paul Ceglia claims to own 50 percent of Facebook.
Based on a Goldman Sachs valuation of the social-networking colossus, that would make him worth $25 billion and rank 13th on the Forbes list of the world’s richest people.
On the streets of Ceglia’s hometown, he and his lawsuit are only worth eye rolls and wary chuckles from folks who prefer to be diplomatic. Many who know Ceglia aren’t so polite. [...]
“Any way he could make easy money, that’s what he did for a living,” said Ira Warboys, a Wellsville High School classmate of Ceglia.
“He can talk a real good story, but in the long run, he’s nothing but a joke.”

Facebook would love to have this suit disappear before filing for an IPO. But if it lingers, no doubt Facebook will point to this profile to convince investors that the legal murkiness that surrounds Facebook’s founding has all been cleared up with the settlement of the Winklevoss case, and that Ceglia is just a sideshow.

Photo: Sandy Girl/Flickr