Facebook Watch: Former Business Partner Sues the Winklevi

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Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images

In a twisted turn of karmic legal events, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the 29-year-old twins who succeeded in extracting a reported $65 million from Facebook CEO (and TIME’s 2010 Person of the Year) Mark Zuckerberg, are now embroiled in another legal battle — only this time, they’re on the receiving end.

Wayne Chang, a former business partner of the Winklevoss brothers, has filed a complaint with the Superior Court in Suffolk, Mass., claiming that the pair of former Olympic rowers treated him in the same regard as Zuckerberg did them. “I got backstabbed,” Chang told ABC News on Tuesday. “I just want what was rightfully mine. I just want to go for my share of the company, my share of the partnership.”

(More on NewsFeed: Social Network, In Real Life: Yes, Zuckerberg Still Hates the Winklevi)

And it just so happens that “share” includes a portion of the $65 million Zuckerberg settlement, Chang claims, stating that the Facebook litigation was a shared asset of the company he and the brothers ran together from 2004 to 2005 — The Winklevoss Chang Group — of which the social networking site that started it all, ConnectU, was a part.

Upon agreeing on the settlement with Zuckerberg, the “Winklevi,” as the Zuckerberg character refers to the twins in The Social Network, forfeited 100 percent of their ConnectU stock to Facebook. Chang, as a 15 percent owner of the site, feels shafted by the deal, as he didn’t receive any portion of the profits.

(More on Time.com: Inside Facebook Headquarters)

Chang’s complaint was filed in 2009, but has only now been brought into the spotlight because of the popularity of The Social Network, which was recently nominated for a Golden Globe, and the Winklevoss’ newest suit filed against Facebook earlier this month, which essentially demands even more money from the social media giant. While the brothers seem to be a little lawsuit happy, the Chang case is surely one they’d rather be without. A motion to dismiss has been filed, with a trial date set for January 11. (via ABC News)

— By Erin Skarda