UCLA Facebook page “Free & For Sale” administrator sues for damages

An administrator of the popular UCLA Facebook group “Free & For Sale” recently sued the group’s former administrators for $27,000 in compensatory damages and emotional distress damages and $10,000 in punitive damages.

UCLA alumnus Daniel Yadegari filed a lawsuit in October against UCLA alumnus Amos Ng and current UCLA student Eric Sandouk for allegedly damaging Yadegari’s relationship with the company Buddytruk, which was briefly an advertiser on the Facebook page. Yadegari’s legal representation is his brother, Michael Yadegari.

“Free & For Sale” is a public Facebook group for students and alumni, allowing individuals to post their belongings for others to buy or collect. In recent days, the debate around the lawsuit has been widely followed on the group’s page, which has more than 13,300 members.

Yadegari, Ng and Sandouk declined to interview for this story, but several court documents and public posts on the Facebook group detail Yadegari’s allegations against the other administrators.

According to the lawsuit filed by Yadegari, on Sept. 10 he messaged Ng, who was one of the administrators of the group, to ask if he could earn money by advertising on the Facebook group and if he could split the profits with Ng.

The complaint alleges that Ng agreed and made Yadegari an administrator of the group the following day. Yadegari alleged he worked to create rules for the group and make the group appealing to advertisers.

At Yadegari’s request, Ng allegedly instructed Sandouk, also a new administrator, to refrain from changing any group posts or photos, as these activities could violate business agreements with potential advertisers, according to the complaint document.

The next day, Adam Jacobs, Buddytruk marketing director, emailed Yadegari as the page administrator to learn more about advertising on the group, according to the complaint. Yadegari alleged that Ng then agreed to the terms of the advertising agreement, and on Sept. 16 the advertisement for Buddytruk was posted as the page’s cover photo.

Ng and Sandouk allegedly blocked Yadegari from the group page later that day, after Yadegari collected the check from Jacobs, the complaint said. The Buddytruk advertisements were removed, and Jacobs asked for his money back from Yadegari, according to the complaint.

Over this past weekend, Sandouk and Ng removed themselves from their administrative positions in the group and posted identical public messages apologizing to Yadegari on the group’s page.

They also reappointed Yadegari as an administrator over the weekend, and Yadegari added his girlfriend as an administrator Sunday.

Soon after Yadegari became an administrator again, many students began joining “Free & For Sale at UCLA,” a copycat of the original group that Yadegari does not have access to, according to posts on the “Free & For Sale at UCLA” page.

Over the past months, several group members have posted and commented in the original Facebook group claiming that Yadegari unfairly blocked group members who did not violate the page’s rules. One public post on the copycat page explained how students could report Yadegari’s alleged misconduct to Facebook.

The rumors of what happened between the three, including the incident with Buddytruk, have spread over both Facebook groups. Many outside parties have commented and posted their thoughts about the incident to the original page. Lawrence Lagera, a UCLA alumnus, posted a satirical screenplay of the incident to the group.

Yadegari also ran for undergraduate student government president in May 2011.

Read the complaint below: