Winklevii lose appeal to get even richer off Facebook

The Winklevoss twins hilariously parodied in The Social Network have failed in an appeal to reopen a case against Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg.

Twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss failed to convince the US Court of Appeals that the $65 million cash and stock settlement reached with Facebook in 2008 was fraudulent because the company hid information from them.

The court rejected their pleas to have an 11 judge panel review the 2008 ruling, which had originally been made by a three-judge panel, but can still appeal to the US Supreme court.

By undoing the original settlement, the Winklevoss twins were hoping that they may be able to capitalise on Facebook’s rising market valuation, estimated by private investors in recent weeks to have exceeded $70 billion.

In the original ruling in April, however, Chief Judge Alex Kozinski called them "sophisticated parties" who, with a team of lawyers and a financial adviser, had reached a "quite favorable" settlement.

Classmates of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg in Harvard, the relationship between the Winklevoss twins (referred to collectively as the Winklevii in the film) and Zuckerburg was made known to the public, with more than a little artistic license, via the 2010 hit film The Social Network, which charted the development of Facebook from its origin to the social networking behemoth it has become today.

Needless to say, the twins didn’t come off too well in the film, coming across as spoiled, arrogant brats with a sense of entitlement originating from their vastly wealthy family background.

As well as attracting notoriety for the perception created of them in the film, the Winklevoss twins are also famous for their rowing abilities, having competed for the USA at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.