Mr. Ceglia. (facebook.com)

Facebook's lawyers are ready to close the bizarre case in which an upstate New York wood pellet salesman, Paul Ceglia, claimed to own half of the social network thanks to an old Craigslist gig. To sum up: Mr. Ceglia paid Mark Zuckerberg for some coding on a project of his that bore no resemblance to Facebook, but it was around the time that Facebook was invented. The court case has gone on for more than a year and Mr. Ceglia has burned through six legal teams and disappeared to Ireland, where he lived for a few years as a child and has some family.

But now it seems like the case is drawing to a close: a judge has declared Mr. Ceglia in contempt of court and ordered the entrepreneur to pay $5,000 for not turning over some emails Facebook wanted, reports the Buffalo News. "The judge also ordered Paul Ceglia to pay for part of Facebook's attorney fees and expenses, an amount likely to be substantially higher," the paper says. You think?

Facebook's lawyers said they plan to file for dismissal soon. Will the ruination of Paul Ceglia deter future Facebook wannabes, or will the prospect of the Winklevi's $60 million settlement and the company's impending IPO continue to tempt anyone who ever signed a paper or made a pinkie swear with Mark Zuckerberg to head to court?

Show me them emails, Zucky.

Paul Ceglia's fifth or sixth new legal counsel, depending on who's counting, has a new tactic.

In papers filed in a federal court in Buffalo yesterday, Mr. Ceglia alleges that Mark Zuckerberg deleted emails pertinent to the case from his Harvard University after the judge issued a "litigation hold."

Followers of the legal hijinks will remember that Mr. Ceglia's version of those emails were cut-and-pasted in a Word Doc, which seems a little antiquated, even for 2003 and 2004.

Facebook's crafty lawyer Orin Snyder's, who makes sport of maligning Mr. Ceglia and his attorneys, emailed Businessweek to say:

“These filings by Ceglia and his latest lawyer are truly delusional. These are the desperate acts of a man whose fraudulent lawsuit has now been fully exposed.”

That may be, but Betabeat would pay good money to see Zuck's Harvard-era emails. If they're anything like his IMs, it should make for an interesting read.

Facebook attorney Orin Snyder.

Today is the deadline for Paul Ceglia, former wood pellet salesman, minor real estate baron and internet entrepreneur, to turn over evidence in his lawsuit against Facebook, in which he claims a 2003 contract with Mark Zuckerberg entitles him to half the social network.

The case has dragged on for more than a year, and has been at an impasse for weeks. Mr. Ceglia still has not complied with an August 18th order to turn over more evidence, and has in fact moved to Ireland, where he has family. As far as anyone knows, he's still living there.

The evidence stalling the case? Removable drives the court has decided exist, based on claims made by Facebook after its team examined Mr. Ceglia's computers. In a Sept. 28 decision, a federal judge ordered Mr. Ceglia to produce the drives and show why he should not be sanctioned for failing to do so earlier. Sanctions would mean Mr. Ceglia would have to pay for all of Facebook's legal fees, and Judge Leslie Foschio seems to be leaning that way.

But it's not just Mr. Ceglia who could be on the hook. Allison Frankel of Reuters reports Mr. Ceglia's legal team could also be subject to sanctions. That means no fewer than four law firms, as the plaintiff has burned through counsel and is currently represented by "interim" counsel Jeffrey Lake and a long-time advisor Paul Argentieri, could be fined if Facebook's bulldog lawyer Orin Snyder decides to teach them a lesson.